Someone Like You
by writer4sho
Summary: There are things that don't make much sense when you go through the motions, but in the end we never know if we're destined to be with someone or not. Can Hermione accept that? D/Hr. Slight smut.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This one will be five-chapters long. Also keep in mind, avid readers, that I have deleted The Dark Side. Only because I really was stuck and oblivious as to where I should go from there. Please don't be upset. I will make it up to you. I'm writing more and I have a ton of ideas that I'm working with at the moment. You guys can count on me. Promise.

**Someone Like You**

**Part 1**

**November 2003 (Present)**

The clicking of those blasted heels had been grating on the last of her nerves as she sat patiently at her desk. She sighed while clenching her quill, locking her gaze on the parchment in front of her. She didn't want to turn in her stiff chair and stare at the shoes that were making it hard for her to gain any sense of thought or concentration.

Her little desk was adjacent to her fellow employee, Alison Dillbage. Alison owned those bratty pair of heels that clicked loudly as she huddled around her desk.

Staring up slightly, with the rest of her body remaining still, she saw the tall blonde hover over her own desk, shuffling through some of her parchments and folders. Hermione wasn't too sure what she was up to with her fidgeting, but her question was answered when she saw the relieved blonde thrust out a couple of galleons from where they had been hiding.

"Ah! Finally," Alison smiled softly at the golden coins in her hands and looked over to Hermione with a glint in her blue eyes, "Want anything from the Atrium, Hermione? I'm going to get a Butterbeer."

She shook her head and tightly smiled up at Alison before trying to avert her eyes back to the parchment in front of her. She stopped trying though when she saw _him_ walk through the double doors of the big office.

If she wasn't going to make a fit and jump out of her seat to head somewhere else, then she knew that all she could do was face the situation head on. But the way he was strolling in, robes billowing behind his lean frame- she couldn't help but take in a deep breath of air before feeling her cheeks turn red.

She wanted to look back down at her parchments so that she could go over the case once more before heading over to the Wizengamot to overlook the hearing, but when his grey eyes caught sight of her she couldn't help but look on as he walked over to their desk area.

His strides were so sure and solid. His gait- smooth. And if she looked close enough, she could probably see that he didn't have a single piece of lint left on his black, starched robes. He was proper and clean, like the git he always was. And she loved everything about it.

With a slight nod he approached her desk and stared down at her before smirking and turning his attention to Alison. "Ready?"

Alison blushed and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, looking down at those annoying heels Hermione deplored. It wasn't until she saw him catch a quick glance at the blonde's calves that Hermione felt the need to grab the shoe so that she could clog her on the head with it. Those red pumps really needed to be used properly...

"Ready for what, exactly?"

Hermione watched as Draco reached out his hand to tuck that stubborn blonde strand away from her eyes. All soft and gentle, he was. She glared quickly before looking down at her papers again.

"Lunch. I owled you just two hours ago."

"Oh, Merlin! That was supposed to be right now?"

"Well, yes, love-"

Hermione cringed and shifted in her seat, trying so hard to drown out the exchange between the two of them.

"-never told me the time precisely, Draco." She heard Alison reprimand him coquettishly.

With a dignified roll of her eyes, Hermione stood up slowly and gathered her quill and folders, stuffing the parchments into their rightful places. She grabbed her bag on the left side of her desk and looked over everything to make sure it was all put into place. It seemed everything was.

"Leaving?" Alison asked as Hermione tucked in her chair and took a step away from it, clutching her bag and papers tightly as she looked forlornly at couple in front of her.

"Yes, I have the case down at the Wizengamot around five-"

"Oh, but it's only three."

Hermione remained quiet as she stood awkwardly in front of the two, trying her hardest not to blush under his penetrating gaze.

She nodded her head and began to walk away from the two slowly, "Right. And I need to finalize certain things, you see-"

"Oh, do come to lunch with us, then? You've been working in that desk of yours all morning." Alison looked almost on the verge of begging and Hermione grimaced at the sight.

She turned her eyes on him and saw his straight figure standing even more solid and erect than usual.

_He's uncomfortable_, she thought.

She shook her head and smiled bitterly at the blonde. "I'm sorry, Alison. I really can't. Maybe another time, yeah?" She watched as the blonde nodded with a small pout and then turned her attention back to _him_ as she wrapped her thin arms around his neck, kissing the side of his cheek sweetly.

Shaking her head and turning around to face the doors that lead to the elevators, Hermione gripped her bag tighter and clenched her teeth, feeling the edges of her enamels grind together in the most unforgiving way.

Her parents would not like her doing that at all with her teeth. And so she stopped.

**00000000000000000**

"Remember when you and Draco went to the theatre together, that one month...I forget when-"

"Why are you even bringing that up?"

Ginny grinned at her and laid her cup on the wooden table of the tea shop that stood on the corner of the cobbled streets in Diagon Alley. The quaint store was _Humberry's Suites Café_; a new shop that was built and invested by the owner, Madame Humberry after the Second Wizarding War. The lavender curtains and cream table cloths really made the restaurant look more suitable than the overly pink, stuffy den of Madame Puddiefoot's tea shop in Hogsmeade.

"I was just thinking of it. Harry and I want to go over and see one."

"A play, you mean?"

"Yes." Ginny looked down at her pale tea cup and stirred her silver spoon in it twice before setting it down. "Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Oh, I don't know. It could be because the last time I handed you a book by Shakespeare-"

"That muggle bloke who wrote about a million stories," Ginny injected with a nod and a sip of her tea.

"He's brilliant."

"A true nutter to be writing all those things."

Hermione frowned at her friend and straightened the lapels on her brown jacket, re-clasping a stubborn button on the top of it. "My _point_ is that it just seems a bit peculiar that you would ask about the theatre. Curious that you would even put Draco in the context. I've gone there a plenty times without him, mind you-"

"Well, yes. But it seemed to be the only way to bring him suavely into our discussion. And look what you've done there. You've ruined it. My plans are completely soiled."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Oh, you'll live, Ginny. I'm sure."

"We shall see." The quiet between the two eclipsed as Hermione took a sip and bite from her scone. Ginny rolled her nimble fingers along the table's frilly cloth and cleared her throat before nodding her head. "How's it going? You know- over at the office?"

Hermione continued to chew what was left of her sweet treat before speaking. "Quite fine." She watched as Ginny raised her eyebrows in disbelief and quickly raised her hand in the air. "Honestly, Ginny. If I don't talk about it, I will feel better."

"Hermione Jean Granger, if I never heard anything more stupid come out of your mouth, I think that last phrase took the cake."

She crinkled her brow and set her hands in her skirted lap. "Meaning?"

"You know as well as I do that hiding from your problems..."

"This isn't a problem, Ginny."

"Right. Because we'll pretend that you two didn't break up six months ago after two years of a relationship. Then we'll disregard the fact that he started dating someone who works with you just a month ago."

Hermione puckered up her lips and squinted at the petite red-head in front of her. Hermione thought Ginny quite irascible at times. "That's the general idea, yes. I would like to forget it happened, alright?"

The look Ginny was sending her way wasn't helping things either. The soft eyes that stared right through her made her feel like she was baring her soul to all of wizard-kind. She felt the heat of those blue eyes and was hiding underneath her invisible wall of protection to block herself from the inspection.

"When was the last time you actually spoke to him, Hermione?" She whispered softly.

Hermione sighed and sat back in her seat, "About four months ago."

Ginny gaped at her and whispered into her teacup, "Hermione..."

She shook her head and said, "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Shrugging up her shoulders and finishing her tea she almost didn't catch on to the last word Ginny said before getting up to use the loo. But Hermione heard it nonetheless. And the word, "barely", stung through her quietly.

**00000000000000000**

Staring with disappointment at her closet, she noticed the tops of it were covered in dust full of old boxes and shirts that she hadn't worn in over a year. She tried to step on the tips of her toes to reach them, but her height impeded such ventures.

Her wand was in the living room at the moment and the idea of running down those flights of stairs to get it wasn't all too pleasing for the former Gryffindor, especially since she was feeling a bit under the weather.

All she wanted was to grab her blanket at the top of the shelf right there and head over to her bed to cuddle in the warmth of it. It was zebra-striped with fake fur that she had gotten from her parents during the Christmas of her fourth year. It was absolutely the most horrid thing Hermione ever saw, but the warmth and smell of home quickly made her appreciate it more.

Ever since then she'd use it to warm herself up, from the harsh air of the winter to the terrible symptoms of a fever- which she was so heavily plagued with at the moment.

The smell of home wasn't on it anymore, that she knew. It faded with time. The only thing that she could really smell on it was mint and musk.

She stood higher on her toes and grabbed the edge of the closet door to haul her body up so that she could skim her fingers against the furry cloth. Stepping her feet on the edge of her shoe cubby, she raised herself up some more and triumphantly grabbed a hold of the sheets, tugging it and unknowingly and surprisingly bringing down a big, soft plush of something else that wasn't only the blanket.

Groaning with pain and aches as she got down from her toes, she shook the dust off the blanket and coughed sharply. Squinting through the darkness, she located the plush object that had fallen and picked it up, turning in her closet to turn on the light.

As soon as she had done that, the sight in front of her quickly made her gasp out loud, clutching the plush item in her right hand.

A bear.

A teddy bear, of course.

She held on tightly to it with her fingers and loosened her grip when she knew she had stared at it long enough. The smiling bear looked up at her, arms opened wide as if it were asking for a hug. A hug that was long overdue. She held on tighter as she shut the lights off in the stuffy closet, walking out and back into her bedroom.

The cool air had gotten more frigid and as she padded her bare feet along the wooden floors, she wrapped the hideous zebra blanket around her body and held on tight to the bear as she slipped her way into the soft sheets of her bed.

The lumpy figure against her was smothered by her tight hold and she breathed in the scent of mint and musk as she thought about the first Muggle gift Draco had given her for Valentine's Day-

**00000000000000000**

The dust that accumulated on her desk from her not being there for one day made shivers travel down her spine. She had walked in with a red nose and a stuffy look on her face, hair practically thrown this way and that as she knew it looked wretched when she Floo'd out of her flat on her way to work. The top buttons on her robes weren't fastened together and the papers she had been carrying were haphazardly hanging out of the edge of her folders.

A mess was an understatement to how she felt today. The fever was slightly abated when she had woken up at around four in the morning. She knew that things over at the Department needed to be taken care of and when she got an owl from the Head of the Department that she was needed in for today, prospects of going back to sleep fell short.

She pulled out her chair, which made a sickening noise as it scraped against the cold floors. Alison had been sitting in her desk next to hers and looked up with astonishment at the sight of her- as if she didn't know who she was and why she was at Hermione Granger's desk out of all places.

"Oh, it's you. Goodness, gave me a fright." She smiled softly at her and leaned back in her seat. Her tight, green robes wrapped around her tall frame. "You weren't in yesterday. Alright?"

Hermione nodded and unwrapped the scarf around her neck, placing it carefully on the back of her seat. "Yes, much better now. Thank you for asking."

Alison nodded slightly and Hermione shifted under her inquisitive stare as she shuffled around with the messages that were in her inbox crate.

"Right, you got a meeting today then?"

Hermione shrugged and pulled out one message that had red markings on the edges of the paper.

Tearing it apart gently and sitting herself down at her desk she looked over the letter and placed it down when done, going to the next one.

"Kingsley came by your desk yesterday."

Hermione looked up from her reading and raised her eyebrows, "Oh?" Alison nodded. "What for, then? Is everything alright?"

The blonde in front of her shrugged up her shoulders and flung her head slightly to the side as her hair flew over her shoulders, illuminating her flowery, pale skin against the brightness of the lights around them.

"He just told me to let you know he had stopped by and wanted your immediate presence in his office. Seemed urgent, but..." She shrugged and leaned forward in her seat to look down at her paper work.

Hermione nodded and bit her lip as she thought about what was so urgent that it required her immediate attention from the Minister of Magic. Her nerves were tittering as she thought about the rogue, Anti-muggle groups that was similar to the case she had worked on two months prior, praying to Merlin it wasn't about that at all.

The thing with the unit of groups that formulated against the Ministry and Muggles after the Second Wizarding War and Voldemort's demise was that they were numerous. And with numbers came power. However cliché it sounded, Hermione believed it. It might not have been permanent power, but it was temporary enough.

She had to work with Death Eaters, Purebloods, Elitists, and even Squibs who rebelled against the injustice of their race by using Muggle technology- the last group, Hermione tried her hardest to help. Before she even got into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement she was able to eradicate some of the injustice in the laws placed against the Magical creatures when she had worked in that Department for well over a year.

Sure, she wanted to focus her works on the benefits of house elves, but the injustice that was placed on more than just the elves made her a good contestant to host a few charity functions for the less human, or less magical.

But these groups were like a bacteria- multiplying and spreading. The threat they posed though held no _special_ consequence, but she knew it was always better to be prepared, rather than sorry.

The doors of the big office opened and she shot up her head to look as _he_ walked in, gait persistent- strides long and direct. The look on his face told it all, though. It was a matter of importance and even though she hadn't spoken to him in so long, she was quick to open her mouth as she looked at him with a scrunched brow and a nose twitch.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her low voice cracked from her current illness. She cleared her throat and rubbed the bottom of her neck as she felt the soreness tingle the inside of her. Her skin was hot, but she knew it wasn't only because of the fever.

Maybe it was the way his hair wasn't gelled back today. The wild, grey brazen look in his eyes staring straight at her as he stopped in front of her desk. His breathing looked irregular, although she figured it would have looked normal to any other person passing by. But she knew it was only because something had happened, or something important needed to be discussed.

He breathed out a sigh and looked over to Alison, smiling weakly, before turning his sharp, calculating gaze to Hermione. "Mr. Gurleroy wants to speak with you, Granger."

She incredulously looked him over and sat back in her chair, "Really now?" He nodded curtly and stood straight as she noticed him clench and unclench his fists on either side of him. She watched as the rippling veins underneath his pale skin shifted as he moved his hands some more. The muscles tightening. "What for?"

He raised his right brow at her and frowned, "Well," he looked around and stopped his eyes at Alison who seemed to be completed invested in their little dialogue. "It would seem he has a case for you."

Before Hermione could speak, Alison quickly interrupted as she sat up higher in her wooden chair, "Another?" She looked between the two and folded her hands on the top of her desk. She blushed as she tightened her folded hands together, "Pleas don't have me misunderstood. I see that this is the Wizengamot Administration Services and we assist with cases on a daily basis, but..." She stopped and looked from Hermione and then to Draco as she smiled softly, "Why is it that Hermione seems to be getting most of the cases?"

"Not true at all, Ali-"

"You've had thirteen cases over the past month. And I? Only two." She looked over at her with a blank expression and continued to stare helplessly as she ran a finger through a strand of blonde hair.

Hermione frowned and patted her heated neck once more before setting her hands on her folders, "Well..." She looked down at the fourteenth case she was working on, almost done with it. "I just- I'm rather quick when it comes to my cases..."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Alison asked with hurt expression on her delicate, pale face.

"Nothing! It means nothing." She felt her voice tighten and she winced at the pain the quick yelp caused on her vocal chords. Merlin, did she need some tea. "It's just...the reason for me having so many cases is that once I'm done with one- well..." She looked away from Alison's facial expression and stared at her dusty desk instead. "I get assigned one after the other, of course. So I finish quickly and get one right afterwards. The cases are really about first come, first serve."

Hermione knew she was telling a half-lie and that most of the time the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement felt the need to assign Hermione with the tougher cases. Only because she knew that she would invest more of her time on cases rather than on social events, which Harry and Ron still felt the need to tell her was not only morally wrong, but incomprehensible. Something about her priorities (which she felt was quite fine in her own opinion).

"Draco, why aren't I ever assigned cases then?"

Hermione watched as his shoulders slumped and he walked over to the left of Alison's desk. He sat on the edge and grabbed her folded hands from their tight grip.

In Hermione's opinion, she honestly thought the young blonde looked pathetic as she sat at her desk pouting, but the strong timbre of his voice brought her out of her hated thoughts. "You're working on a case right now, love. One of the hardest cases if I remember correctly, yeah?"

Alison blushed and bit her lip as she looked over at Hermione and nodded her head in her general area, "But why does she get to have almost _all_ of the hardest cases?"

Hermione was about to speak up, but Draco looked over at her and quieted her with a penetrating stare that spoke more than a thousand words- it was yelling at her to keep her mouth shut and to stay out of the conversation. She wanted to harrumph and roll her eyes at him, daring him to tell her what to do. But as she looked over to the blonde girl holding his hands she kept her eyes down on her desk and looked over her messy notes once more, contemplating on leaving now to go see Mr. Gurleroy.

"You know that Hermione has been in this Department longer than you have- hence, she has more expertise."

The hair on the back of her neck rose up and she blushed while she picked up the last of her folders and made her way to stand up from her desk to leave. His eyes shot up from Alison's and over to hers, a questioning gaze on the precipice of his brow. "Where are you headed off to?"

"Mr. Gurleroy. You said he needed to see me."

He nodded his head and looked down at Alison once more, pausing with slight hesitance before he bent down and kissed the top of her porcelain head, smoothing down the straight locks of her blonde hair.

Hermione looked away quickly and made to leave, when his voice stopped her. "I'm coming with you, of course. He needed to talk with the both of us."

She internally groaned and nodded her head, waiting a couple more seconds as the couple bade their goodbyes and arranged quickly a lunch later in the day. Waiting for those ten seconds seemed to make it seem like ten minutes, ten hours- maybe even years. Either way, she didn't like the idea of having to have to wait as she listened to the coddled whispers from Alison and the deep, soothing tones as he whispered back in her ear placing soft kisses along the side of her face.

Hermione didn't see much of it, but she knew. Oh, how she knew...

**00000000000000000**

The Ministry Balls were always so extravagant and sometimes Hermione wondered how many galleons were invested into the whole affair. This year, however, it was held in the Atrium of the Ministry, the tall fountain decorated with shrills of lights and fluttering particles of magic snow that fell over the whole area and disappeared once it touched the tile floors of the room.

The tables on the side were filled with refreshments and the thought of drowning the aching pain in her throat with a cup of Butterbeer seemed to be a highly attractive idea.

She made her way between wizard folk in all kinds of attire and robes. A woman, she noticed, was dressed in a penguin-suit robe that was complimented adorably with a penguin hat that had the yellow-black beak and marbled eyes. She smirked as she nodded and passed the old lady and made her way over to the bowl of Butterbeer glistening under the headlights of the shimmering room.

She took a cup, scooped a good amount in and sipped gingerly as she fingered the lacy frills of her red robes. The wool belt was tightly wrapped around her waist and the length of the dress properly met at the ankles of her feet. The slight, sweetheart dip in the front provided a delicate view of the golden-charmed necklace that Ginny had given her on her birthday two months prior.

She cherished it only because unlike the other nonsensical jewelry that she received on holidays, this one had her name engraved on it with a snake around each letter that was charmed to slither through them on occasion.

"If I had a galleon for every time you wore red to a Ministry function, I'd be one rich bloke." Ronald's voice was beside her and she turned slowly, smiling up at him as she placed her cup of Butterbeer down.

"Ron, how are things?" She asked breathlessly as she wrapped both of her arms around him. He clasped his hands around her waist and patted her back affectionately.

She cleared her throat and released her hold on him, his arm still around her waist and his voice very close to her ears. "Fine, fine."

Hermione nodded and looked around at the wizards and witches as they passed by the small table Ron and her stood at. "How's Bridget?"

"Hm, fine. Lovely lady is actually here. At the loo to freshen up and do what you ladies always feel the need to do. Merlin, knows what..."

Hermione smiled up at her red-headed friend and noticed that he had gotten taller and more muscular. His hair was shaggier from the last time she saw him, which was a month ago at the Burrow for Sunday brunch. It wasn't so often that she did get to see him- what with him traveling around as much as Harry and going every so often to Ireland with Bridget to visit her family.

She was honestly happy for him and for the fact that he was able to move on after a year of her relationship with Malfoy. Of course, Ron had hostile feelings about it when they began. But when she looked back on the whole thing in retrospect she understood his pain. They were best friends and had dated for a year before Malfoy and her even engaged in the idea of dating one another.

"You know, Ronald. She's only doing this because-"

He waved his hand in the air and muttered out a "yeah, yeah" as he looked around the room some more, no doubt looking to see if Bridget was out of the loo yet. "To look beautiful for me and other nutter things that fills the head of women nowadays."

Hermione frowned at the interruption and turned her eyes back to the crowd as the music filled the Atrium. Folding her arms, she huffed out a breath of air and watched as the curly strand of hair flew away from the front of her face and then back down.

"Really, Ronald. Sometimes you can be so-"

-dense? Yes, you've told me. Or is it that my emotional range is the size of a teaspoon?" He lifted up a golden brow and smiled down at her. She felt her cheeks redden and she lifted her hand to smack his coated arm. "Oi! What was that for?"

"For having an emotional range the size of a...a Nargle!"

"Merlin, Hermione. The things you say to me." He feigned a hurt expression, but the smile remained on his face, bright and illuminating. Merlin, she really did miss having her best friend around like old times. He was such a joy and light to her life. His easy going smile and humorous attitude. Him and Harry both. Speaking of...

"Well, you'll find a way to heal." She smiled and looked down at her cup on the table behind her, picking it up and taking a small sip before speaking again. "By the way, Ronald. Where is Har-"

"Hello!"

She shrieked and felt a small portion of her drink fall on the white cloth of the table. Turning around to glare at the unexpected voice behind her she watched as Harry's smile grew wider into a solid grin. She rolled her eyes and looked around the table for a napkin to wipe off a bit of the drink that fell on her arms, muttering under her breath a quick "_honestly_".

Harry's chuckle bubbled around her and she looked from her damp arm to him and back, wiping the last of the sweet drink from her pores. "You are incorrigible sometimes. You and Ronald, both."

"Says the girl who constantly wears the color red-"

She turned around and threw the napkin on the table, turning red with embarrassment and trying her hardest not to smile at their childish antics and teasing. "Oh, shut it!"

Harry kept his smile on and stuffed his hands in his robe's pockets as he looked behind her and over to Ron, "Mate. Bridget was asking for you over by the entrance."

Ron tutted and moved from his place near Hermione, "Ah, finished with the loo, I'm guessing." Harry nodded and Hermione stood there and watched as Ronald excused himself from the two.

The music around them chimed on elegantly and the lights dimmed slightly throughout the whole Atrium as the glittered snow brightened in the center of the fountain, snowflakes powdering and white around the whole atmosphere of it.

She turned to look at Harry to ask him about Ginny, but saw him take his right hand out of his robe's pockets to hold out towards her. She glanced at it before looking up at him, the corners of his eyes crinkling with the most beautiful smile. He rose his brows up in an inquiring fashion and she giggled as she looked around the room before grabbing his rough hands. "And Ginny is where exactly?"

He pulled her closer to him and rested his other hand around her waist. She smelt a slight scent of musk and peppermint, but banished the thought of it as she laid her head down on his shoulder and felt his words leave his mouth, the vibrations rumbling against his chest. "She wanted to rest; big game tomorrow."

She raised her head up and frowned, "Oh, that's tomorrow?"

He nodded and scrunched his brows, "You are able to come, right?"

She nodded absentmindedly as she went through her head of the things that she had to do the next day. "Yes, I should. Don't worry. I'll make it."

He hummed and spun her around as the music crescendo lightly and melodically danced around them. "Bridget should be resting as well. But you know her. She's just here because..."

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed as he twirled around her and grabbed her waist, moving them side to side as they continued to dance on. "Of course." She smirked as she saw Ronald and Bridget over by a thick column that supported the ceilings of the Ministry. Bridget's light blue dress illuminated from the bright lights of the fountain in the darkened corner where she stood. Ronald seemed to be hovering over her form and she looked vulnerable and quite enchanting to Hermione. "She's good for Ron."

"Hm. She is, isn't she?"

She nodded and nuzzled her head further into the corner of his neck, "Right."

"Hermione..."

"Yes, Harry?"

"What's this I hear about another "rogue" case? Working with gathering information for another hooligan group that's aligned themselves against the Ministry. Honestly, Hermion-"

"Harry", she lifted her head and looked firmly into his eyes. "It's nothing that I haven't worked with before. I'll be fine." She quieted down and looked around the room and caught sight of _him_, quickly swallowing down the pain in her throat as Alison walked in beside him, holding on to his green and black dress robes. "Besides I've got Draco working with me on this one."

Harry looked forlornly at her and the crease of doubt etched on the corners of his lips grew dimmer as the music chimed loudly. "Malfoy?" She nodded briskly and he held her waist tighter as they moved across the floor. "I..."

"What now, Harry?" She scorned.

"I don't think that's advisable."

She raised her brow and bit the inside of her cheek, "Oh? And why's that?"

"Hermione, you know why."

"Yes, but I highly doubt that our past relationship will interfere with our work. This case is both important to us and I am perfectly able to work under straining conditions."

His eyes looked over her face and he sighed, bringing her closer to him and wrapping her in a tight hug. "If you find yourself incapable of dealing with the whole thing, Hermione, please...just-"

She nodded and brought her mouth to his ears, whispering softly. "Harry", she looked over to where _he_ stood with Alison, bringing to her lips a cup of some beverage that Hermione wasn't too sure of. Alison's smile as she looked up at him made the threads that held the pieces of Hermione's heart together stretch tight in pain. Her breath hitched as he looked back down at Alison, brushing a strand of hair away from her eyes and placing his lips on hers. Hermione looked away and stared at the floor. It wasn't until then that she realized that they had stopped dancing and that she still had her arms wrapped tightly around Harry, mouth still close to his ear.

"Hermione? What is it? Everything alright?"

She breathed out heavily and held on tighter to him, feeling the familiar warmth of her best friend as corners of her eyes watered slightly. "Yes," she croaked out, clearing her throat to speak again. "Everything will be fine."

* * *

><p><strong>July 2000<strong>

_"Not at all, Granger. The fact of the matter is that you went to the abandoned house on your own without protection. Never mind that I was supposed to assist you, but going alone was just plain foolish of you."_

_She growled at him menacingly as they continued to walk further down the darkened alley. The wet cobblestone underneath her feet made her cringe. She had lost her shoes back at the house. She didn't want to make a sound while she had been there snooping around the darkened room so t__aking off her shoes seemed to be best way to go. _

_But now she dreaded the fact that she left the pair back at the abandoned house and she knew that if she even thought of asking Malfoy to let her go back that he would hex her to unconsciousness and carry her back to the Ministry himself. _

_"You do know that there were reportedly no signs of any wizards at the home! Also, Malfoy. It wouldn't kill you if you would show up a little more on time at the Apparition points when we have these little rendezvouses! I waited fifteen minutes for you to show up by the tree, but you didn't! So of course I went in on my own."_

_"Right and sending your Patronus to let me know this wouldn't have killed you. I had to bloody wait fifteen minutes myself by that same tree, thinking you were wrecking havoc somewhere else and being fashionably late- oh wait, what am I saying? You would never be fashionably late anywhere." He paused and smirked at her as they continued walking, "Honestly, Granger. Your sense of style doesn't even deserve to be referenced as something "fashionable". Who wears bloody sweatpants nowadays?"_

_She frowned and continued walking on. They were so close, so very close to the Apparition point. All she knew was that she needed to get away from him. His taunting and jeering. "Right, Malfoy. Because looks are how you get yourself anywhere in life. Of course."_

_"Don't use that foolishness on me, Granger. It won't work." He had caught up to her now, but she was still walking faster, trying to get away. He got a hold of her jumper's sleeve and halted her footsteps. _

_Jerking back from the sudden tug she yelped and turned around to look at him with a fierce stare, "Let. Me. Go."_

_"Look, Granger. You can't bloody well feel the need to get away from me. We're __partners__ on this case." She wrestled her arms to try and get out of his hold, but it proved futile. _

_"What do you want, then? For me to be happy that I have to work with a git like you?"_

_He snarled at her and brought his face closer to hers, staring her down with his penetrating grey eyes and shooting daggers. "Don't think for one moment, Granger, that I fancy spending this much time with you either. But I won't go down as the bloke who couldn't complete a case because of a know-it-all bint!" She felt the harsh breath of his words smack her damp cheek and she looked over his pale, dirtied face before turning to look away._

_"Let go, Malfoy." She whispered. _

_It took a few seconds before she felt the tight grip in her arms relax and finally let go. Breathing to regulate and make sense of things, she looked back at him and nodded. "Fine, I understand. And we do need to cooperate, I suppose. In order for this to work."_

_He scoffed and folded his arms across his tattered, dirtied robes. "You figure?"_

_"I know." She stated firmly. Looking at his blond hair glare menacingly under the moon's light, she brought her attention back to his face and spoke again. "Next time I'll send my Patronus."_

_"_Brilliant_."_

_She stood still and waited as the moon's light dimmed on his bright, blond hair- making it easier for her to look at the dirt and soot saturated in each strand. _

_"Right then." She turned around and began to walk away, further down the alleyway with him at her side, quiet. They finally reached the Apparition point and she was getting ready to grab her wand to Apparate out of there and to the Ministry before he grabbed her by the arm once again, but more gentle than the last time._

_"I suggest we go get something to eat before we head back to the Ministry to look over the paper work."_

_She cocked her head to the side and sighed, "They have food at the Ministry, Malfoy. And I'd rather not spend my galleons on something I could get for free over there..."_

_He held her arm tighter and she shrieked back, trying to release her arm from his hands for the second time that night. "Right. I'm bloody hungry, Granger. The Ministry food taste like crap. I'll pay for you. We're going. I at least want to satisfy my belly before we dig into miles of paperwork just to hear you yap on about your theories and ideas. So we're going __out__ to eat."_

_She scowled at him and drew her wand to his chin, "Let me go, you complete-"_

_And with a smirk, she felt a tight tug in her navel and heard a loud pop. Traveling through time and space and apparating to Merlin knows where to eat...__out__._

* * *

><p><strong>Alright then. Thank you so much for reading. I've got this planned out, by the way. So it shall be updated every one to two days. And keep in mind. It is five-chapters long. Much love.<strong>_  
><em>


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** I am so, so, so sorry that it took me forever to update this for you lovely readers. But don't think I'm going to ditch this one. I've got a plan with this and I hope it hashes out well. And yeah. Don't worry. I'll continue on! Just three more chappies. Love you guys like crazy!

**Someone Like You**

**Part 2**

**November 2003 (Present)**

The dust flew around her as she picked up the rug from the front of the room. Coughing and flailing her arms around as she tried to wave the particles away, the rusted mark on the front door that read the name "Sirius" made a painful part of heart collapse.

She rose up from her crouching stance in front of the door's entrance and reached up to touch the hard, jagged edges of the plaque as she looked inside the dark, cluttered room. It looked the same as the last time when all three of them were here during the War with Kreacher.

Hermione sometimes wondered if Harry ever went back into Sirius' room, but from the dust that accumulated around the shaggy rug that she now held in her hands, she knew that he probably hadn't.

And if she were to be honest with herself, she'd say that she didn't know how he was feeling about the whole thing. How he was dealing with the fact that all those he could really call family were just…not there. Except for Ginny, Ron, and herself- where she knew that he counted on them more so than he ever did on anyone else. And the prospect of starting a new life outside of the whole seven years that was their life back at Hogwarts was a delightful idea.

But the way the door creaked when she opened it wider to view more of the room and the way the air felt dry and inhospitable, she knew that he hadn't been in here since then- the last time when all three of them were at Grimmauld's Place during the war.

"You're doing him a huge favor, Hermione."

She turned around at the voice and nodded as she looked over the pale features of her red-headed friend. The sun was casting its luminous glow into the dim room and the pale light from the hall was helping slightly to brighten up the place. "He hasn't been in here since then, has he?" Ginny shook her head, red strands of hair moving around her face as she walked in through the door to stand next to Hermione.

"No. He…he really tries to avoid this area."

Hermione sighed as she placed the rug on the edge of the bed's frame. Moving around what looked to be a black and white kite, crumpled and wrinkled on the dirty floor of the room. The sheets on the bed looked worn out and old. The mildew smell radiated off the covers as she got closer and grimaced slightly.

She shook her head and ripped the sheets off the bed quickly, trying to not let her clothes touch it, putting herself at a safe distance away. "Gin, this is just-"

"I know, trust me. This used to be much worse, but…" Hermione continued to rip the rest of the covers and duvet off, making sure to leave the mattress bare. She looked over to her friend as she stood near the door- a small pale, fiery figure in the darkness of this haunted room. "I couldn't stand the smell, you see." Her friend's blue eyes looked up at her and Hermione noticed a slight, sliver of bright light shine against the pale of her pupils.

"Gin," she walked over to her friend and laid the duvet and sheets near the foot of the door. She grabbed her by the shoulders, bringing her in. "I know, it's difficult to deal with-"

She felt Ginny scoff against the side of her hair and pulled back to look down at her, still holding her gently. "Difficult. Right." Ginny nodded and kept her eyes blank as Hermione saw the red, wet tint around them. "Try having to watch the man you love feel and look so tormented, toiling along life with nothing but a shred of hope that you _are _his last hope."

Hermione froze as she let go of Ginny, bring her hands to her side as she stood there. "I suppose I don't know then."

"Oh, Hermione…"Ginny whispered softly, bring her friends clenched fist in her hands. "I'm sorry. Goodness. I can really be so tactless sometimes."

"It's fine, really." Hermione shook her head and rubbed her brow as Ginny still held on delicately to her clenched fist, red and burning as she dug her nails deeper into her palm.

"I see it in you. The pain."

Hermione rushed out a heated breath and closed her eyes, laughing without much humour to the sound. "Of course there's pain, Ginny."

"I'm talking about this pain, Hermione." She grabbed Hermione's other hand as she skidded it across and on top of the witch's forehead. She then placed the other hand that held her fist over Hermione's heart. "You know what I'm talking about."

She swallowed down a dry feeling in her throat and breathed heavily as she looked over her friend, "I…shouldn't have to feel this way though."

Ginny shrugged up her shoulders and let go of her hands, "It's not something you can choose to reject. You love him and you don't like seeing him so empty and alone. That's why you haven't done anything rash and irrational since the break up. You love him too much to really ruin his relationship." Ginny smiled softly and brushed a curly, brown strand of hair away from the front of her eyes. "It's annoying at times to see you suffer like this, but you want him to be happy. I understand."

She nodded and looked around the room, taking in the cluttered nick-knacks and toys, "You know, Gin, maybe if you were to clean this room with Harry you two might be able to somewhat…I don't know- relieve the built-up tension in this house."

Sighing, the red head looked around the room too and frowned, "I would love to. It would make him feel better to face the problem straight on, but he doesn't seem to want to come within an inch of this room. It's funny, isn't it? He can face the Dark Lord just fine, but when it comes to loved ones…"

Hermione laughed, "Yes, Harry does seem to have a hard time with confronting 'personal' issues." She thought back to when they visited Godric's Hollow and were about to go and see his parent's grave. She remembered how tightly she had to hold his hand and pull him along. It wasn't until then that Hermione truly realised that even though her best mate was going to have to duel the darkest wizard of their time, he was really just as vulnerable as anyone else. At that moment, she knew that he needed someone to guide him when he just couldn't do it himself.

Looking over her friend and smiling softly, she patted the red-head on the shoulder, "You just need to push him, then."

"Oh, I don't thi-"

Hermione nodded firmly and stepped away, bending down to pick up the sheets once more, "Yes, you can. You make him better, Gin. And if you can't do it, then no one can." She looked down at the sheets and scowled, "Besides…I'd rather you two did this together than me. Honestly, I would love to help you clean the rest of this place, except for Sirius' room…" She smiled and laughed as she walked out of the room with Ginny's muttering, "bugger".

**00000000000000000**

"Ah, Ms. Granger. Please, come in." The deep voice from Kingsley as she walked fully into the Minister of Magic's office brought such great warmth. Knowing him for quite some time, Hermione knew she was able to relax and take a breather.

The desk in the middle of the big office looked tiny compared to Kingsley's encompassing height and stature. He sat in his chair across from her, in his purple robes that she noticed were shining brightly under the lights within his room. The air was clean and crisp, breathable and giving.

She nodded her head at him and heard her heels click against the polished tiled floor as she made her way to her seat. "Sir." She sat and rested her hands in the crook of her lap, waiting.

He looked her over and as she shifted in her seat silently and she noticed the worry lines on the corners of his eyes and brown lips. It wasn't that Kingsley was ever old, but she was beginning to see what the role of Minister of Magic did to one's being. The way he hunched over as he walked was no longer the same when he was protecting and fighting so many during the war. In fact, his voice was losing its booming effect. Sure the soft, smooth tenor that came from his mouth when he spoke soothed many and calmed nerves. But he wasn't the same. And she noticed it.

"How are you, Ms. Granger?"

She nodded her head and twisted her fingers in her hands, "Alright, I suppose." Softly smiling, she lifted her hand to brush a strand of hair away from her eyes.

He looked her over once more and she noticed that his gaze was worrying as he studied her. "I hope so. This case-"

"The rogue cases, yes. Of course. If you were wondering how they're going, well-"

"I've heard that Gurleroy assigned the case to you and Mr. Malfoy, am I correct?"

She frowned slightly at the question and nodded, "Yes. He and I are meeting up later this week-"

"Ms. Granger."

She bit the inside of her cheek and kept her eyes on him, "Yes."

"If…you don't feel like working with him. We can, I assure you, find someone else."

Confused and shocked, she blinked rapidly before looking around the office in a daze. She wondered why the topic of Draco being her partner on the case even came up. It wasn't like she never worked with him before. And how would the Minister even know about potential complications of working with-

"Harry!"

The old man in front of her smiled softly as he took his glasses off and rubbed the lenses with the sleeve of his robes. "Ah, yes. He did come in here just this morning…"

She shook her head and scowled slightly, "Please, Minister. This situation isn't of great consequence."

He lifted a brow at her and placed his glasses back on. "Oh?" She shook her head once more and sat back in her seat. "Harry seemed quite worried when he came in though, Ms. Granger. I don't think it's _not_ something of great importance."

Her lips thinned and she exhaled a deep breath as she thought of all the hexes she could place on Harry that would mildly affect him six ways from Sunday. "Look, I won't deny that it will be complicated. But I will make it work. In no way will this interfere with the case, sir. I assure you."

He nodded solemnly and looked over the papers on his pristine, wooden desk. Stacks upon stacks lying perfectly in columns as he picked up one folder, opening it and placing the file in front of her. "This is to help you two start up on some research. Your basic evidence. Some have gathered that the underground rogue groups are establishing units all over London. It's still unknown as to where else they've established bases, but know that this isn't a fixed group. They travel. You should see here the evidence that Blasey and Connor were able to leave for you to work with- names, locations, settings, techniques, infiltration plans…"

"Blasey and Connor were on this case before?" All thoughts of disembodying Harry was put to the side as she looked over the parchment filled with names and dates. "Why aren't they working on it now, then? They're one of the best Aurors this Ministry's got." The worry in her voice was evident. She tried her hardest to hide it, but the soft look that the Minister gave her made Hermione blush with embarrassment at the sign of her vulnerability. "I'm sorry, sir-"

"It's quite fine, Ms. Granger. I understand your worry." He sat back and rested his elbows on the arms of his chair. "It's not too difficult a case, mind you. Only…well, this one was proving to be quite taxing on the both of them. I decided to hand it over to you- only because I trust your analytical expertise. And this calls for more of that, rather than hunting down Death Eaters."

"Are the rogue groups in this case Death Eaters? Or just another assembly of wizards looking to bring down the Ministry for personal reasons?"

"The latter, I'm afraid. Those are always so much harder to work with, only because of their diverse wants, needs, and personal vendettas." He kept quiet as he looked down at his robes, eyes roving back and forth. "Remember when Ms. Chambers from the Atrium went to St. Mungo's for that terrible infection she caught over the weekend before her admittance into the hospital?" She nodded. "Well, apparently she was poisoned." Hermione gasped as she brought both hands over her mouth in astonishment.

"At the Ministry?" He nodded and rubbed the edge of his brow thoughtfully. "Well, how are you sure?"

He waved his wand in front of him and she watched as the papers in the folder he gave her flipped quickly to what looked to be the seventh page. "These groups assign specific tasks to the members. This particular assignment was assigned to #3445. They don't care for names in this group, it seems. They assign them numbers."

"And Blasey and Connors were able to acquire the list of tasks assigned to these members then?"

Kingsley nodded, "Only a few. The leaders of the groups apparently burn down the list after the members attempt at the tasks."

"Well, why couldn't they get to Mrs. Chambers on time then when it did happen? They knew!"

Kingsley shook his head and frowned, "They wrote down the list the same day Mrs. Chambers was poisoned."

"Merlin…" She whispered as she looked over the information and tasks listed under #3445. "So then they just assign these tasks and expect them to fulfill these deeds? What if they don't?"

Kingsley remained impassive as he flicked his wand once more and watched as the pages flipped to the second to last page. Hermione looked over it and read a few lines before she bit her lip and looked up from it, worried. "They kill them?"

"Yes. It appears so."

"But…won't that dwindle down the number of people involved? Won't that affect them as a group?" She looked back at the parchment and read over the words once again. Then suddenly with a thought she looked up at Kingsley and stared, "Unless…"

"What is it, Ms. Granger?"

"Unless, they're doing this to make sure that we don't get to them faster." Kingsley looked at her questioningly and she breathed out quickly before tapping her finger against the file. "Think about it. They don't accomplish the task…well, then that would only leave the group with a burden. A taxing member. It affects their power, in a way. They're not so much focused on the number, but rather the force and strength. They take out the weak and leave the stronger ones in their ranks. This enables them to not be burden down and it leaves us with not being able to capture the 'weak' ones, in their case, for questioning."

She quickly breathed out a gust of air and smiled softly at the revelation that was brought to her. It made perfect sense, really. And when she got the time to work on this with Draco, she knew he'd bring in his two-cents as well. She smiled at the prospect, but caught herself quickly before covering it up and looking back at the Minister.

He nodded at her solemnly, eyes concerned, before closing the file with a flick of his wand. "Seems to me that you can handle this case quite well, Ms. Granger." She nodded with a quick smile and took the folder. She stood up and bid a quick goodbye to Kingsley before turning around to walk out of his office. She was stopped, however, by his deep voice and she looked back to see him perched over his papers. He took off his glasses once more and rubbed his eyes before looking up at her tiredly, "Also, Ms. Granger. I asked about Mr. Malfoy not because I was worried about the outcome of the case." She frowned as he continued, "I understand Harry's worry, you know. It's not the easiest thing to do. To have to surround yourself with people or things that you give you the most unsettling feelings- it's usually not a healthy circumstance to find yourself in."

She stared back and nodded weakly as she turned around, scrunching her eyebrows together. She walked out of the Minister of Magic's office with less strength to draw in the same easy, crisp air she inhaled when she walked in.

**00000000000000000**

**November 2000**

_Hermione knew that he was usually late on these particular nights where they had to stay at the Wizengamot Administration Services office overnight. Working on independent cases, as well as the one that they were assigned to beforehand called for more than one occasion of bringing in the necessary supplies needed to work on the overloaded papers and cases._

_She heard heels clicking against the floor of the office and looked up to see the new employee that she was introduced to today walk in with a stack of papers piling high._

_"Do you need help with those?" Standing up, she walked around her desk and assisted the blonde before the stacks came falling around them._

_The girl smiled at Hermione softly and nodded as she righted herself up and adjusted the rest of the papers that she held in her arms. "Thank you, Ms. Granger."_

_Hermione smiled and walked to the blonde's desk, which was right next to hers. Placing the stacks of parchments on there, she stood back and watched as the girl sat at her desk and rearranged everything. "I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name."_

_The blonde looked up, her clear blue eyes warm and bright. She held out her delicate hand and stared up earnestly, "Alison Dillbage." Hermione nodded with a smile and shook her hand back._

_Sitting down at her desk, she took the folders out of the drawers, getting them ready for when Draco came by. "How do you like it here so far?"_

_Alison sighed as she separated half of a big stack from the other. "Loaded."_

_Hermione smiled and opened one file, looking over the same words she had been reading for the past twenty minutes. "It gets better. Or rather…more adjustable."_

_"I just don't understand how so many of you can take on more than two cases at a time."_

_"Yes," she read over a highlighted line in her file and looked up quickly with a smirk at the blonde. "Ludicrous, isn't it?"_

_Alison nodded and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off at the sound of the office's doors opening and heavy, footsteps thudding against the floors. "Granger, you better have a good excuse as to why I ran into your Weasel of a friend-"_

_"Which one, Malfoy?"_

_"The bint, of course! Merlin, the nerve she has. Yapping on about how I should conduct myself around you and not give you any trouble…" He shook his head and stopped in front of her, dropping a bag full of food on her desk. "I actually went to the Muggle restaurant we went to last time. You know- the one you dragged me into…"_

_"Obviously it shouldn't be an issue now since you seem to like their food, Draco."_

_He scoffed at her and took off his cloak, laying it down on the chair in front of her desk and turning around to look at the almost empty office. His eyes landed on Alison and he nodded diligently at her and looked back at Hermione. "Who's the broad?"_

_"Draco!" He shrugged up his shoulders and planted himself in the leather chair, crossing his outstretched legs at the ankle. Hermione shook her head and looked over at Alison apologetically, "I'm sorry, Alison. He's quite…untamed."_

_Draco scoffed and smirked at Hermione, "Untamed? That sounds almost…animalistic." He turned in his seat and reached out his hands over to the blonde's desk. "Draco Malfoy, pleasure." She took his hands in hers nervously, looking over towards Hermione the whole time. Hermione attempted a strained smile and when the two let go she frowned at Draco and shook her head._

_"You can attempt to act human sometimes, you know. That was quite rude of you to call her a 'broad'."_

_He rolled his eyes at her and grabbed a folder from a neatly stacked pile, "Oh shut it, Granger. Your manners kill me sometimes."_

_"Your lack thereof makes me wonder what will happen to mankind."_

_He smirked up at her and flipped through the parchment, "Well…we'd all become 'untamed' animals, according to you."_

_She blushed and grabbed the big bag of food off her desk, untying the ends and opening it up. "Did you get my-"_

_"Yes, the number four without the broccoli, because you can't seem to swallow those devils down like a champ. Yes, of course."_

_She frowned as she took her plate of food out and looked over at Alison quickly, noticing that the blonde was sneaking glances over at Draco as she worked over her mile-high stacks of papers._

**00000000000000000**

**November 2003 (Present)**

"I'm coming!" Hermione shouted as she left her kitchen, tying her hair in a tight bun on top of her head, leaving strands in front of her face. She wiped her hands on the front of her trousers and looked down at her yellow jumper, before groaning at the sauce stain on the front of it.

Licking her thumb to rub a smudge of it off, she reached her door and looked through the peephole before opening it. Seeing who it was, she frowned at her door with confusion before clearing her throat and turning the knob.

"Hermione, love!" She felt, more than saw, her mother run into her with a tight hug, her father standing behind her in his classic, knitted blue jumper that she had bought him for his birthday three years ago.

She awkwardly patted her mother on the back and walked backwards into her flat, letting her parents in. She closed the door and locked it, turning around to stare at them once more. They were standing in the middle of the living room, looking around as if they'd never been in her place before.

"Mum. Dad." She whispered as she walked closer to them, slowly with a weak smile. "Is something the matter?"

Her mother shook her head and smiled, "Of course not, dear. Just stopping by for some dinner."

Hermione looked between the two and noticed her father's silence stance as he stood behind her mother, hands clasped behind his back. "Right…"

"What is it you're making, by the way? It's on your jumper." Her mother walked across the lit room and wiped away at the stain that Hermione had been worried about just a few moments ago.

She looked down at her mother and sighed heavily, moving back a step after insistent poking at her chest. "Pasta. Why didn't you call?"

"Oh, well. I don't know…"

Hermione's eyebrows rose and she looked back at her father who remained quiet. "Okay, then. Well, thank Merlin I made a heavy serving tonight." She looked back at her mother and shook her head as she walked down the hall and into the kitchen. "Could you and father set up the table for me then, mum?" She shouted as he took the lid off the pot and mixed the sauce.

"Of course, dear."

Hermione muttered under her breath as she walked around the kitchen, quickly taking the three plates out and scooping the pasta from the pot.

Her mother had an unsettling habit of doing things like this- visiting Hermione on days that didn't call for much company.

All she wanted to do was eat her pasta on the lounge chair in her study, read a book with a glass of wine and possibly catch an early snooze before tomorrow. Merlin knew she needed it.

She was going to work with him tomorrow on the case. Having already forwarded copies of the file that Kingsley had given to her, she knew that to be best. She didn't want to start off their case with an unsettling disposition and a nervous inclination to explain everything in the folder. It was better to send it to him.

Owling him, however. It was strange, to say the least. She hadn't done it in so long. Especially since her stationary owl hadn't been giving lots of messages in the past two months or so. And she did notice the excitement in Orwell's eyes when she sent the bird off to give the file to Draco. The bird was quite fond of him- since the day that she first sent Orwell to deliver a message to Draco just three years ago.

She remembered laughing as the bird came back with a particular, giddy flight in its wings as she had taken the note out of his mouth. Apparently Draco didn't take the bird's natural tendency to bite when not given any snacks all too well at the time. But from then on…she wasn't too sure why the owl and Draco got along so bloody well.

She heard footsteps along the tiled floor in her kitchen and turned around to see her father walk in, hands clasped tightly behind his back still. She smiled and set the pot down on the stove, wiping her hands with the damp cloth on the ceramic counter. "Finished?"

He nodded and a soft crinkle formed around his brown eyes as he walked further into the kitchen, over to the three plates of pasta. Nodding, he looked up at her. "Looks wonderful, darling."

She shrugged and turned around, opening a drawer to fish around for some forks. "Standard cooking, really. Nothing too special."

She took three silver forks out and handed one to her dad, "We were going to call…"

She nodded her head and picked up her plate, watching her dad to the same with his and her mother's. "It's fine. Nice to have you two here anyways." She wasn't lying all too much though. It was…somewhat, comforting- she knew that the solitude that she trapped herself in was beginning to close in on her and make the spaces around her seem more cramped and less freeing.

Ginny always commented on her hermitage at times, and even though Hermione was sincerely okay with it, she knew it was somehow eating up inside her.

Yes, the idea of sitting alone with glass of wine and a decent book was tempting. But the surprise of having her parents over was bigger than that. She knew it was nice to have them here- to tell them things. She told them so much and catching up with them never hurt.

Walking into the dining room and now looking at her mother sitting at the table and smiling up at her father, who placed her plate of pasta in front of her, Hermione felt a knotted up feeling rise in her chest. Just a tiny knot, really. Yet it was something quite indescribable.

As she sat down and watched her mother talk and uphold the conversation around the table, reaching over to stick her fork in her father's plate to get some food, smiling as she poured wine into his glass, as well as Hermione's, and noticing the crinkles around the alabaster skin of her smile- Hermione just felt like having her parents over was something she needed.

"Hermione, darling, do you have any cake in the fridge? Something sweet for us to nibble on after this meal?" Hermione nodded and smiled at her mother, taking another bite from her plate. "Lovely. This meal is splendid, dear." Her mother smiled at her quickly before taking a quick bite and looking up at Hermione's father with an inquisitive, jovial look on her face. As if she was sharing a secret only he would know about through her eyes.

Of course, Hermione wasn't too sure what they were communicating non-verbally. But it didn't take magic to know that they knew what the other was thinking- mind, body, and soul.

Sighing, she took another bite and stared hard at her red-brick colored wine in her tiny glass.

**00000000000000000**

Shuffle, shuffle.

Flip, flip.

Black, quill ink scratched up against the solid parchments in the stuffed room. A sofa chair was lined up against the bare brick wall of the room. A bookshelf filled with magical law books dating back to the 1st century was lined up against another, and the desk that Hermione and Draco were working at was lined up against the wall opposite the bookshelf, very near to the fireplace that was attached to the Floo Network.

They both decided to work in the small, lounge room on the floor of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Only because it was the only room on the level that had the activated Floo Network at this time of the night and being able to work on everything and then grab all the necessary books if she needed to continue reading proved to be an advantage, so that she wouldn't have to carry the books a long distance to this room to then floo.

But now she was regretting it greatly.

The room was so small. Something she noticed after they both walked in. There were only two chairs, one desk, and a sofa. Usually in the morning, however, there were more chairs and tables, but seeing as how it was midnight and the cleaning crew usually came in around ten to tidy things up, she understood partly as to why the room was so barren and empty looking. The cleaning crew stacked up the chairs, obviously. But the fact that now she and Draco were both sitting at the same tiny desk, one in front of the other, looking over sheets of information and pages from books- well, she know understood the meaning of "awkward".

Sure. There were many awkward moments in her life, many that were highly embarrassing and humiliating, but this one- well this one nailed the definition spot on.

Looking up from her papers- the ones she read about five times prior to coming here with him- she watched as the fringes from his usually neatly, placed hair fell over his forehead and into his eyes. His head was bent down and his two hands were under his chin as he stared hard at the paper. She watched as his eyes moved from left to right rapidly, almost impossibly fast. And she knew then that he wasn't reading.

The stiff shoulders and the tightening of his clenched hands- they were all signs. She was getting too good at reading him.

She continued to look at him, but was caught off guard when he looked up at her, steel, cold eyes glinting under the dim lights of the room. Blazen with the fire's flaring glint of explosive flame.

Holding her breath in and blushing profusely, she tried to take her eyes off of him and look back down at her work, but his mouth was moving, no words were coming out and she shook her head slightly, still staring hopelessly.

"Granger." She heard him say, lips moving over his words.

"Yes?" She awoke slightly from her daze and stared clearly at him to let him know he had her somewhat full attention.

"I said would you mind handing me the book to your right? I need it." His voice was cold, void of any emotion as he stared harder at her- waiting.

Bristled by his standoffish demeanor, she lifted up her chin and grabbed the book from her side, dropping it lightly on his folder. She then turned back to her papers, flipping through the pages.

She was sure that she memorized the whole case's information and she was beginning to get a little twitchy. All she wanted to do was get this meeting over with and she promised herself that he wouldn't affect her like this. But she knew that she was being delusional if she thought that having him here wouldn't affect her. He always affected her, didn't he? His actions, his words…his voice.

It was nice to hear him say something after the tense hour of being in the lounge with nothing but a crackling fire and shuffling papers. But it was getting useless and they really needed to start working on some ideas for the case.

Pushing back her shoulders and looking up at him once again, she lightly gasped as she looked into grey eyes that stared hard at her still. He had been watching her. She wasn't too sure if she was supposed to be amused by it, but she brushed the feeling aside and looked away from his eyes to stare at the window behind him as she spoke. "So, any ideas then?"

She heard movements from where he sat and looked back at him to see that he was shifting in his seat, eyes still on her, until he was seated back with his legs outstretched and heels lightly touching the front of her shoes. She wasn't too sure if he was aware of it, but judging from the blank expression on his face she guessed not.

But then again, it was Draco Malfoy. Master of hidden emotions.

"Well, we're going to have to start off the same way that Blasey and Connors did, aren't we?"

She nodded and looked over the notes, "We'll most likely have to get some Polyjuice potion so we can change into them. I don't know how the members will react to new members wanting to join the forces. And it would make it easier for us to go through the motions, really. We wouldn't have to start from the beginning to then work our way up."

Looking up at him for affirmation, she was only able to see a disapproving look in his eyes. "We?"

Confused, she closed her folder. "Well, yes. Do you not want to go-"

"It's not me that I'm questioning, Granger."

It took her a while to understand him fully, but as soon as he caught on to his intended words, she scowled at him and whispered harshly, "I'm going."

He shook his head and sat up in his chair, hands folded over his folder. "I don't think so. Looking over these files and judging from how this 'rogue' group works…they're not simpletons, Granger. They're different from the other 'rogue' groups we've worked with in the past."

"You think I'll get caught, don't you?"

His eyes grew dim and his expression more dark, "I know you will."

"I'm no simpleton, either! I'm very capable of taking care of myself, thank you."

He rolled his eyes, "Of course you're no idiot. But you will slow us down if we need to run away, if an emergency calls for us to leave quickly…and it'll be then that you'll get caught."

"You-" She stopped and looked him over, to see if he was being serious. Yes, he was right. She wasn't apt to really run as fast as him, or dodge dark magic as well as he usually did. But she was calculating and logical. She knew loads of spells that not even he knew about. Without a doubt, he would need her there to gather the right information while he worked on trying to protect both of their arses. Like they always use to do! So why was he now deciding to dispose all of that for his selfish intentions? "You're impossible, you know that?"

"And you're overreacting."

"I am not! If anyone is being irrational about this, it's you."

He rose up in his seat some more, back straight and eyes cold. "I am being rational, Granger. You will slow us down."

She scoffed and started to grab the book around her, shutting them and stack one on top of the other. "Yes, and if you go alone, who will be able to collect the information needed then?"

"I will."

"Yes," she nodded numbly, grabbing her wand after stacking all the books. "Because you are as observant as I am."

"Is that supposed to be an offense?"

She looked up, "No. It's the truth." Grabbing her bag and shoving the folder inside of it, she stood up and grabbed hold of all the books. "As a team, Draco, we always worked in that fashion. You kept us away from danger and I got the information because we both knew our strength and weaknesses. Now saying that you don't want me there because it'll slow down the process…well, that's a poor excuse, really."

He looked up at her silently and stared at the books she was carrying, "Where do you think you're headed off to?"

She sighed and walked over the fire, grabbing a handful of floo powder from the bowl on the mantle. "Home. You irritate me fiercely sometimes and I would like to get things in preparation for when we head over to the 'rogue' group's headquarters in two days time."

"No, Granger. I told you that you won't be participating in this!" He stood up from his chair and marched the short distance to where she stood. The floo powder was sifting the through the spaces in between her fingers as she watched his face turn a pale shade of red.

She silently looked over him and lifted up her chin, "I think we're past that don't you think? Demanding things from one another and then complying because that's what a relationship is all about…compliance."

"Granger, don't you dare-"

"Goodnight, Draco. I'll see you tomorrow, then?" She threw the floo into the fireplace, walked in and shouted to go home. Before leaving though, she was sure she saw anger simmer through his eyes. And she wanted to believe so hard that there was a glint of worry…but she knew that imagining things wasn't good for her health anymore.

**0000000000000000**

**January 2001**

_Her breath caught in her dry throat as the fire around her grew and raced through the corridors that she left in her frantic path. She needed to find the tree so that she could Apparate away from the burning manor._

_Cold sweat ran down the side of her dirt-stained face. It was the only thing that was reassuring her that she wasn't being consumed by the storming fire that grew or the heat that enveloped and consumed. And as she turned down the hall and made a left for the rickety door the knob was jabbed and unmoving. She grew frantic and cursed under her breath. Grabbing her wand and pointing it at the door, she watched as the purple ray of light exploded from the end of the vine wood and ran through the arch of the doorway where the door had been, broken wood falling around her._

_She looked behind her and heard the voices of men running around the flaming hallways she had been in earlier. She felt this impossible inclination to go and help them. To save their lives, but she knew that if she did Draco would never forgive her. He would jokingly call her "weak", reprimand her for her "hero complex", which he mentioned wasn't as severe as Harry's, and then would look at her with a mixture of worry and disappointment._

_And right now, she didn't need that. She ran head of herself and opened the other door across the room she had entered in, looking at the shredded steps of the staircase. It looked unsafe and she knew that if she were to run down it to head outside that she would most likely fall through the creaking boards. But one look behind her and she knew that she had to at least try._

_She stormed down, breathing heavily as she stepped precariously on the worn out steps. Her whole body was shaking and she muttered under her a breath a list of spells that could have helped her in this situation if she were to fall through the boards._

_Soon she was on the last steps before she fell over and scraped her arm against the shredded piece of wood that jabbed out from the railings at the bottom. She hadn't seen it because of how dark the first floor of the manor was and when she heard the swirling torpedo of the fire reach the top the stairs behind her; she stumbled as she got up and ran quickly through the front entrance and outside._

_The air was dark and cloudy, the smoke rising above the moonless sky, covering the ever-lasting twinkle of the stars above. Shredding all hope of surviving for those who unfortunately had no time to escape the Fiendfyre's rapid rage._

_She gasped out loud as the smoke caught up in the throat, coughing harshly as she ran through the grass of the field._

The tree, the tree.

_She muttered under a breath a quick prayer to whoever was watching over her and ran haphazardly through the muggy, faded dark. It was then that she remembered her wand. Casting a "lumos" and looking around her, dark figures running through the field around her- those who managed to escape._

_"Move, move, move!"_

_"Over here, mate-"_

_"-Benson! Where he is? We have to go back!"_

_Hermione shut her eyes, as if closing them would cloud the desperate sounds of the members around her. Calling out for help and wondering where most of their comrades were._

The tree, the tree.

_She stepped over twigs and ducked under branches, cursing under her breath as she wondered why the bloody tree had to be so far away from the site._

_But when she tripped over her feet, hands still trembling and breathing still a bit wheezed and sore, she looked and saw the tree, shrouding over her with its branches and leaves hanging down on her with repentance. She closed her eyes and breathed out a quick sigh of relief, only hearing the shouts and orders around her._

_Keeping her thoughts in order and trying hard to concentrate, she raised her wand and Apparated away._

_The pull made her feel a little uneasy but when she opened her eyes as soon as her bottom landed softly on the rug she breathed out a deep breath and began coughing mercilessly. It, however, was interrupted as soon as she felt a hand grab her injured arm to tug her off the floor. Shaking her weak form._

_A harsh breath flew in her ear and she closed her eyes as she smelt the familiar scent of mint and smoke. "_You. Are. Mental!_"_

_She shook out of her daze and groaned at the pain, "Malfoy, let go-"_

_"You could have gotten yourself killed! Perished in the fire!"_

_Why was her arm hurting so damn much? She looked around the safe house and finally looked at Draco, eyes grey and weary. The anger in his voice was so palpable and real though. But his eyes…_

_"Draco, could you let go of my arm. I'm injured."_

_He looked down at her and quickly let go, but only to return his touch by gently holding her bloodied arm in his rough hands, wand over it. "I'll heal it-" She made a sound to protest, but he hushed her. "Shut up, Granger! You bloody well didn't listen when I told you follow me out of the manor, so let me just…let me just fix your bloody arm!"_

_She bit her lip and watched as the light from his wand enveloped her sliced skin, leaving behind a light pink scar and smudges of dry blood in its wake. She sighed at the sight of it healed and looked back up at Malfoy. "Thank you." She whispered. She knew that he was still somewhat livid about the whole thing, but she was too tired to argue._

_He held on tighter to her arm and she frowned at his grip, "Could you possibly let go?"_

_"You had me worried."_

_She rolled her eyes, "You're stressed out because the plan foiled on us. Just let me go and we can discuss this after I have a bath."_

_His grip tightened and she raised a brow at him as his voice wavered over her, "Don't."_

_"Don't what? Take a bath?"_

_He pulled her into him and he looked troubled as he ran his other hand over her tangled hair, watching as the soot flew around her face. "I was worried, Granger. So damn worried."_

_She stared up at him tiredly, but weakly lifted her hand to rest it on his shoulder for reassurance. "I'm fine." He didn't look too convinced and she bit her lip as she looked over the lines in his forehead. She rubbed them away and watched as look in his eyes cooled down and grew more subtle and soft. "They don't call me the Brightest Witch of Our Age for nothing, you know." She smiled softly. He nodded, still a blank look in his face. She frowned then and patted his cheek, "I'm fine, really. Just let me go take a bath and-"_

_His lips crash down on hers and she gasped out loud at the feel of them. He moved them over, hesitant at first. It was chaste and quick, the coolness and feel of him was off her in a quick second afterwards. He was breathing heavily in her face and all she could do was keep her mouth shut tight as confusion clouded her mind._

_Shaking her head and looking around them, she then noticed that they were standing quite close to each other and she knew that if she didn't want this happening again that she would have to move away from his warmth._

_She pulled away, but was brought back in with his other arm around her waist._

_Laying a hand on his chest to push him off of her, she stared at her fingers threading through the buttons on his shirt. "We can't." She whispered in exasperation._

_"Yes, we can."_

_She looked up at him and once more felt his lips on hers, prying her mouth open, biting her lower lip and licking the top. She moaned in feeling and in anguish, thoughts of what was logical at the moment with what she thought felt good coursing through her hare-brained mind._

_Merlin, did he taste good. And as he tightened his hold on her waist and she clutched the front of his shirt tightly, she lost herself in the feel of him. Knowing that if she didn't survive the fire, that regrettably she would have missed one of the best feelings she'd ever felt in her lifetime._


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Sorry it took me forever. Again. BUT. This chapter is quite longer than the others. So that is good. Right? Right? I love you guys. I really do. Thank you for reading. Just two more chapters of this hot mess and we'll be through and happy :)

**Someone Like You**

**Part 3**

**April 2001**

_They've both finished with their first rogue case together for about two months now. And yet, they were still having odd conversations in the hall whenever they passed by each other at work. He would still Floo over to her flat and invite himself in for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sometimes all three if they both had the day off._

_It was odd to have him around her when he didn't need to be, but it was normal. To be around him, tease him, fight with him on the most unimportant matters- she was used to him._

_Could she call him a friend?_

_Well, Hermione knew that friendship was a steadfast relationship between two individuals that developed through nurturing feelings and conversations. But with Draco, it was anything but nurturing at times. The fights were semi-impossible to deal with. The interrupted visits harbored her mood slightly and sooner or later she'd get over it and move on._

_He ruined the shape of her life, as opposed to Ronald and Harry who rather were the shape of her life. That was why she never really saw Draco as a "friend". He wasn't someone she could see herself inviting over for dinner to have casual chit-chat with. She could not see herself tagging him along to the Weasley brunches on Sundays or joining her to the theatre to see one of Shakespeare's greatest plays (she still had a hard time bringing Harry, Ron, or Ginny for that matter)._

_What she saw in Draco Malfoy was something more complex than friendship. More complex than the acute dislike that she had formulated against him for the past twelve years. It was...getting used to him. Used to being around him and knowing that he was going to crash through her fireplace in the middle of the night, whining on and on about Pansy and her errant need to be in his bed chambers every night. She would shout at him to stop clocking in to her flat so late at night and he would casually smirk and swagger into her kitchen to get the tea ready for the both of them. She would continue on yelling at him for his indecency to be coming at such hours and he would continue yapping on about Pansy and breathing room. She would then sit there, rigid as a stool, and listen- laugh at all the right places, because honestly...it was just that funny. Then he would sit in silence with her after he was done, murmur how he should be getting home, and get up to clean both of their mugs and Floo out of her flat after._

_A routine that varied every other night, she never really had a problem with it after an hour of his presence, but when he would leave she'd go back to being temperamental and irritated, stomping her socked feet on the wooden tiles of her kitchen floor; marching back to her bedroom to attempt at getting some sleep._

_It had been one night in March, she remembered. Her usual position in her study room as she perused a certain book on prominent Muggle witches of the 13th century and onward was something of a habit for the bookworm, but the fact of the matter was on that night she was actually quite ready to receive Draco Malfoy in her home. What she didn't know at the time was that he had Floo'd into her study room pissed as ever._

_His swagger was disjointed and odd to her, and she could smell the belching musk of the Firewhiskey from where she sat in her sleeping robes- pale silver, the ones that Malfoy had gotten her for Valentine's Day, a month prior._

_She had gotten up from her chair and placed the book down on the table nearest her before walking over to the drunken form that toppled up against her sturdy bookcase._

_"Malfoy." She had bit out as she got closer to him, grabbing the sleeve of his cloak tightly._

_He sent her a sloppy grin, "Granger..." He had looked over her which turned his incessant grin into a lucid smirk. "You're wearing the robes."_

_Rolling her eyes, she had looped her arm underneath his heavy form and tried to haul him out of her study room before he procured anymore damage to her things. "Of course I am." She groaned underneath his weight and picked herself up some more, dragging him down the cold, dark hallways of her house and plopping him on the sofa of her living room. She had sneered down at him as she watched him groan and shift around her couch, laying his head on the pillows and closing his eyes. "You're pissed."_

_He had nodded at her and continued nestling his body into the sofa._

_Running her hands through her hair and cursing him under her breath she had sat at the edge of the couch near his feet and started taking off his shoes. "And why?"_

_A low disgruntled moan had come from the head of the couch that night and she watched his face as she lifted his eyelids and stared at her with a struggled smile. "Good news..."_

_She had lifted a brow up at him and threw the other shoe to the floor, taking care to remove the other one. "Oh?"_

_He had nodded as he closed his eyes, a slow smile creeping up in the corners of his lips. "Been promoted, Granger..."_

_She had stopped all movement and looked harder at him, noting the way he was dozing in and out of consciousness and into the oblivion of sleep._

_It had not been a first for him to sleep on her couch. He often did so when he would come over and chat up with her in the late hours of the night._

_But when the topic of promotion had escaped his mouth, she took off the second shoe and had stared at him harder, waiting. "Promoted to what, Draco?"_

_He had been quiet for a while and was having a hard time opening his eyes as he moved around her couch some more to find, what it seemed at the time, a comfortable spot to sleep in. "Assistant to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement...Granger. I'm hammered. Can we just...talk…in the morning..."_

_She had nodded and patted his legs, getting up to walk out the room that night, not realizing at the time that her shock to hearing he had gotten promoted had her feeling more pleasant and happy then she knew she should have felt._

_Yes, it was nice to know that her former partner had gotten promoted to such a high-end position in the Department. Many would have expected her to feel a slight remorse to the fact that it was Draco and not her who had gotten the position, but she had not felt that way at all. In fact...that night at her flat when he stammered in pissed as hell was the night she realised that she wasn't feeling any sort of envy or anger._

_She was happy for him._

_A position so assured and sturdy, so respected and fulfilling. During the months working with Draco and getting to know him, she never saw someone so dedicated to trying to regain their standing in Wizarding society. True enough his father was under probation, but his mother still held many fundraisers to all sorts of non-profit organisations that were formed after the war, and he was a worker in the Ministry. But the name "Malfoy" was still looked down upon in the scheme of things and for him to gain such a position..._

_Realizing that she was happy for him was something a bit odd for her. It was something she knew she would have felt if it had been Harry or Ron, her best friends. Or for any of her friends. But the fact of the matter was this...Draco wasn't her friend. It was more complex than that._

**0000000000000000**_  
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_His lips were quick on hers for the second time ever. Nothing was chaste or soft about it this time around. In fact, she almost felt the wetness of his tongue lick the edges of her lips before she pushed him off of her with a low groan of agony. She didn't want to. Merlin knew that much, but the fact of the matter was that he had no right. At all._

_Their heavy breathing was all that could be heard, dismissing the sound of the crackling fire in her study room and the wind and rain beating up against the glassed windows. Outside was looking particularly bleak, considering that it was only four in the afternoon and the sun had not yet set. But the lightening that struck from the storm brought in ample amounts of shocking brightness into the room that was only lit with the dim fire from the hearth._

_His cheeks were paler than usual and eyes greyer than the turbulent sky from outside her window. He made to move closer to her and grab her chin once more for another bestowed kiss, but she shook her head and turned it to the left to block his advances. "No."_

_The growl that came from the depths of his throat brought shivers down her spine and she looked back over at his angered expression. "Why the bloody hell not?"_

_She straightened herself up and inched away from him, her lower back hitting up against the edge of her desk- stopping her short from her slow retreat. He came closer then, hovering over her small frame. Outside the lightening clashed against the grim atmosphere and thunder rumbled following suit. "You very well just can't Floo into my flat to snog me, Malfoy."_

_His haunting eyes looked her over and she tried her hardest to not falter or show what she was feeling inside at the moment. She tried very hard to not grab his face either. To kiss him back again. To feel his soft lips ply against hers, coax her into submission. Hell, it had been four months since they last kissed one another and it had felt so good at the time._

_But considering that things between Draco and herself were kind of shady and unclear, she didn't want to pull herself into an unsure circumstance. To go about snogging him when they weren't even friends..._

_"You didn't mind all too much in January, Granger."_

_"Because," she yelled out, clutching her hands together. "That...that was completely different! That was during a time of great distress when you had thought I had gotten killed back at the manor. And it was understandable at the time to have kissed me, because...you were relieved...and so many emotions were hammering through both of us at the time...and...but, you see!" She pointed her finger at him and scowled, "It hasn't happened since then, and it should not be happening now."_

_The silence between the two that followed her loud tirade was like a pinching sort of irritation one usually gets in those sorts of awkward moments. Where one stands there and waits for the inevitable to occur, but all that's there is this feeling of impatient waiting- that pinching irritation of nothing. But his eyes were burning a hole through her and she felt the heat from them scorch the skin of her face, bringing forth a hasty, evident blush that she didn't understand all too much at the time._

_Why on earth was she blushing, anyways? She was not all too particularly angry at him, neither was she embarrassed._

_But flushed, yes. Indeed._

_He cleared his throat and bent his head to the side as she watched the soft strands of his hair ghost across the pale expanse of his forehead. "I want to kiss you, Granger." She shook her head numbly at the point and rambled on in her head why kissing him would be a bad idea. "Yes." His voice was getting closer, lips touching the rim of her cheeks and brushing lightly across her flushed skin._

_Closing her eyes to take in the feel of them on her, she let out a soft gasp as he brought them around her face to the edge of her ears, nibbling softly on the lobe and blowing air into them as he spoke once more. "I need to."_

_She sighed and bent her head away from his cool mouth, letting him bring his lips lower to edge of her skull, underneath her ear, his hand rising from where they were in his pocket to the back of her neck- tickling the strands of curly hair there. "This isn't what's supposed to be happening, Draco..."_

_He huffed hot hair against her neck and breathed her in, "Why not?"_

_Opening her eyes and staring at the fire behind him, over his shoulder, she pulled away from his taunting lips on her skin and breathed in deeply. "Because, we're not friends."_

_He stopped his advances and lifted his head from where it was near the side of her face. He pulled back and looked down at her, confusion settled all over. "We're not friends." He was angered. She could hear it in the bellows of his low voice. When she didn't reply, however, too embarrassed to do such a thing, she heard him sigh and pull back from her- his body only inches away now- giving her room to breathe. "Then what exactly are we, Granger? Hm?"_

_Frowning at the question and looking down at the floor, she shrugged her shoulders._

_He scoffed at her and she heard the bitterness in his voice as he said "right" and turned on his heels towards the fireplace. She looked up and watched as he was about to grab a handful of Floo powder, but stopped him from doing so when she finally spoke. "You come here...almost every night." He rested his hand against the seam of his trousers, fist tightly clenched- waiting. She breathed in a deep gust of air and continued, stammering as she spoke into the tense room with a soft voice. "And...you chat up with me on things that make...absolutely no sense." At this he turned in his spot near the fire to look at her full on, arms still clenched tensely at his side. "You talk about Parkinson and how the bint annoys you to pieces. You talk about your mother...and how she won't seem to stop introducing you to these girls that she thinks will benefit you in the long run and help you to the path of marriage." Pausing to look at how he relaxed as she continued on, she gathered the courage to say more. "You come here late sometimes...to fix yourself a cup of tea. You sometimes come here pissed. And I have to take care of your sorry arse and send you off to bed on my couch." Running a hand through her tangled locks she huffed out a breath and gripped the edge of her desk tightly. "You got promoted, for Merlin's sake!"_

_It was then that she lost it and groaned in her hands, looking down towards the floor._

_The silence was deafening and the fire's crackle was intermittently breaking it. But his questioning voice filled the room, "I got promoted?" She didn't reply and he continued. "What then? Are you angry that I got the position and you didn't, Granger?" She looked up at him and wasn't too sure if he could read the look of disbelief on her face. Apparently, he couldn't._

_Walking closer to her and not minding her breathing space, he deeply hashed out in her face a lewd curse and growled out, "Bloody typical, isn't it? For you to be so damn perfect all of the time. To want to succeed in everything- that you find it hard to even kiss me because I got the position...and you didn't. Just like the bloody, know-it-all from Hogwarts, you are-"_

_She slapped him and loudly gasped at the sharp sound that filled the room, sounding like the thunder itself. Brushing off the shock quickly she scowled at him and spat out, "I'm not bloody angry at you- not at all!" His incensed anger was palpable throughout the whole room and the silent glare he gave to her numbed her all over, but she still found the strength to speak. "Oh, Draco..." She brought her hand up to his red cheek, where her hand mark was plastered so elegantly against his perfect skin. He inched his face away from her touch and sneered down at her._

_"Don't...touch me."_

_She slammed her hand down against the desk behind her and yelled, "I'm sorry! Look!" She groaned and stared down at the floor once more, leaning off of the desk and standing closer to him. She looked back up and grabbed his face with both of her hands, bringing it down to hers- kissing his lips that were plush and pouting against hers with hesitance. She pushed forward some more, kissing him harder and prying his lips apart to push her tongue inside. She wasn't all too sure what she was doing, but soon he was responding to it and wrapping his strong arms around her waist, bringing her in closer and moaning against the wetness of her tongue- nibbling it before taking it in to his mouth some more._

_Pulling slightly away from his lips, she hushed a breath of air and touched her forehead against his. "I wasn't ever mad, you idiot." He waited for her to finish as they looked at one another closely and she wrapped her arms around his neck and placed a chaste kiss on his forehead, "I was happy for you. And we're not even friends."_

_He breathed heavily against her neck and murmured out, "What do you mean by that, Granger? Us not being friends, I mean."_

_Swallowing down a great deal of courage and looking at him with a sense of indifference, she finally spoke what was on her mind to him. What she felt was sheltered for a good few months now. "We're so much more than that. We're too complex to be friends..."_

_"Friends care for each other..."_

_She nodded slowly with a furrowed brow, "Yes. I suppose so…"_

_He sighed against her cheek and whispered in her ears, "Friends can talk to the other and feel like everything is right with the world."_

_She stuttered out a quick breath and frowned, "What are you trying to say...?"_

_He looked down at her with a smirk and placed a kiss on her nose, then on her lips. Pulling away he took her hands in his and kissed her knuckles as well. "Friends don't kiss each other like this, now do they?" She shook her head, still mildly confused. "Come to dinner with me then."_

_"You ask as if it's anything new, Draco. We eat dinner together all the-"_

_"This is different." The meaning of it behind his grey eyes brought the feeling of something more within her._

_When he placed a gentle kiss on her lips once more, she groaned and a soft smile forced itself to tug at her lips._

_"Okay."_

**00000000000000**_  
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**December 2003 (Present)**

"It will be just a quick drink with the guys", Ginny had said when she had stopped by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that afternoon to let her know that they were all heading over to that one Muggle pub that Ron took a fancy towards.

In all honesty, she did miss hanging out with the guys and talking to them. She also missed her talks with Ginny, since the past few weeks have been trying on her part.

Working with Draco wasn't going as well as she had hoped, but she also didn't see it getting any worse.

Their first mission to go and check out the headquarters was quite successful. Hermione and Draco had both Polyjuiced themselves into Blasey and Connors, respectively, and the treatment they received when they walked in was respectful to say the least. According to Draco, he had said that he had been talking to the two Aurors prior to coming on the mission with her and gathered some information that proved helpful: like how they were commissioners, rather than members, of the rogue group- thus giving them more power than the regulars, but less than the leaders; where the both of them would be able to find their offices; and also the leaders' names and faces.

It was a mission that was only supposed to be about getting their bearings straight, but Draco's insistence to check out the leaders' quarters caused her to break out in a long rant about how dangerous it was to do so and how unprepared they were for it. He didn't listen to her though and of course went about Disillusioning himself before crawling into one of the leader's office to "take a look around" like they did with everywhere else. She had been standing guard, of course- tapping her feet with impatience and looking at her watch to wonder if their hour was up for the potion.

When Draco was finished he didn't look at her scowl, but walked ahead of her and out of the underground headquarters.

From that day on they made it a mission to go and visit the headquarters once every week, but the progress they were making was a slow one.

And the stress of having to see him in two days for another meeting to discuss and plan out certain things before they headed over to the headquarters was causing her to react with great stress.

But Ginny's proposal to the pub was something that she couldn't say no to. Besides, one drink would be quite nice.

So she was here with her three mates, drinking over their mugs and chatting up sparsely as the rough, low music played in the background, along with the loud sounds around them: the television playing a recent line up of a soccer game, chattering voices of people all around them, and the scraping of chairs and mugs being clashed around the dim pub.

The smell wasn't awful, but it was reminiscent of muggy liquor, which made sense to Hermione, but didn't bode well with her either.

All of it though, made her relax a bit and she took a quick sip from her beer before turning her attention to the conversation between Ron and Harry, who were discussing quietly the Quidditch Game between Puddlemore United and Chudley Cannons.

She couldn't help but over hear Ronald exalt on the "excellence that is and forever will be the Chudley Canons", groaning at the point in turn of the conversation when he mentioned that the "demolition of Puddlemore United by the Cannons will be the greatest of the season yet".

Taking a quick sip from her frothy beverage, she leaned over to grab a few small pretzels from the center of small table and looked over to the boys. "I'm not too sure about that Ronald. The Puddlemore United are doing quite well this season, undefeated if I remember correctly, yes?" She turned to Ginny on her right for confirmation and received it with a quick nod.

Looking back over to Ron, she watched as his expression went lax then back to jovial and teasing, "Hermione Granger, Quidditch extraordinaire?" He sat on her left and quickly nudged her with his elbow before turning his attention back to his mug to take a healthy gulp. "So knowing the ins and outs of the game, I'm guessing you fly a steady broom now?"

She glared at him, nibbling on the last of her pretzel. "No." She huffed and settled back in her chair, "Just because I find flying a broom to be the most unnecessary from of transportation does not mean I don't find interest in the sport of Quidditch."

Ron scoffed at her and turned his eyes from her to Harry then back to her, a worried expression breaching the corners of his eyes. "You can't be serious?" She remained silent, as did the rest of the table as Ron studied her. "Puddlemore, Hermione? Really?"

She blushed and looked down at the table, "They're quite good."

Ron seemed to huff out a mocking laugh before covering his mouth with his hand. "No one even really likes that team. They're cocky amateurs."

"Oliver Wood is on their team and he's a well off Quidditch player." Ginny said from her seat, leaning into Harry who had his arm around the back of her chair.

"Right," Ron said, pointing at Ginny as if she just proved his point. "He plays for them, but who even roots for them, really?"

There was a brief silence and Hermione felt herself shrinking in with a bit of self-doubt from her slight proclamation for the team. "Malfoy's quite the fan, if I do remember correctly." Harry said over the noisy pub.

She looked up at him briefly and glared. Ron, being the unobservant prat that he usually was noticed and she cursed under her breath when his eyes widened with incredulity. "Merlin's beard. Malfoy converted you into a United!"

Scathing a hot glance at Harry, she addressed Ron loudly and blushed, "Not precisely! I can choose whether or not to like a team, Ronald! It just so happens that I find United to be quite...achieving." She felt that her reason was quite weak, even if she did like Puddlemore United and that Draco's preference for the team at the time they were dating influenced her a bit. Divulging that bit of information to Ronald, or to any of them wouldn't be advisable.

She glared once more at Harry and returned to her drink, tuning out the boys as they argued over whether or not the Cannons actually had a chance with United, Hermione hoping that they didn't. It was until she felt a light tap on her right arm that she turned attention to Ginny who was sitting on the edge of her seat, leaning in close as if getting ready to impart a telling secret.

"I've met someone." The red-head quickly whispered with a grin.

Hermione, confused beyond compare stared with amazement at her friend and then at Harry who was still in conversation with Ronald as if nothing had oddly passed in the last two seconds or so. "Excuse me?" She whispered.

"Black haired bloke with a good standing in the Ministry. He works in the Department for Magical Games and Sports. That's how I met him. I was in the office turning in some papers and there he was. And he and I got to talking and- oh! He's great, really! I can imagine-"

"Gin-"

"-and him just really having a good time together. I've set a date as well, you see and I think it would be best-"

"Ginny!" Hermione gritted out harshly, looking over to Harry who was now looking at the two with an amused smile on his face. She turned back to her friend and frowned, "What are you going on about?"

"Nathaniel Harem. Quite the charming fellow. Really, Hermione. You'd like him a great deal!"

Staring at her friend with a shocked expression, she noticed Harry smirking and Ron trying to stifle a laugh. Were they in on the joke? Or was this serious? "What-"

"A blind date is what my dear sister set you up on, it would seem." Ron murmured out behind his hand that was clasped over his mouth, eyes watering at the seams with slight mirth.

Plowing his head with her hand, she turned to look at Harry who sent her an innocent look that didn't look all too innocent.

Oh. All three knew. And she was the one left in the dark.

Shaking her head, she touched the rim of her mug and frowned. "No blind dates. Just...no."

"Oh, Hermione. Really now. You'd quite like him. Harry knows who is, even! And Ronald approves!"

Hermione bit her lip and nudged her drink to the center of the table, grabbing her receipt to stuff it in her bag. "Ron will approve of anyone that's not Draco."

"Right, and look where that sodding bloke got you." He said to her, which earned him another blow to the head by his little sister who had to get up from her seat to whack him decently enough. "Oi! That bloody hurt!"

"Good, maybe you can learn some tact on your way to realizing the obvious." She glared at him once more than turned her softened expression to the brunette. "Listen, Hermione. I just want you to meet new people- explore options..."

Shaking her head once more for good measure, she bit out a sharp "no" and then retorted to the whole group, "I'm not Draco. I'm not going to date around just to forget about a two year relationship that ended several months ago. It's pathetic and I have no time for that."

She glared hotly at each of friends before awkwardly sitting in her seat to continue on fiddling with the edges of the table.

"Hermione..." It was Harry's voice. Looking up from her fingers she stared into his warm emerald eyes underneath the dimness of the pub; the noise around blocked by his strong, yet gentle tone. "Don't you think it's best to just...move on."

Bristling at this, she sat up straighter with her chin tilted. "You are under no jurisdiction to know if I have moved on or not. Besides...you don't see me bringing Draco up in our discussions." She looked at Ginny and Ron, before folding her napkin meticulously on the table. Doing anything really to keep her fingers busy. "If anything, you lot seem so sure to bring Draco up at every point and turn. It's frustrating."

"Well, we only bring him up because we know he's in that working mind of yours, Hermione." Ron shrugged up his shoulders and took another big gulp from his mug.

Sighing, she laid the disheveled piece of napkin aside and grabbed her beaded bag from off the floor near her seat. "I think I should leave..."

"Oh, don't go." Ginny pulled on the edge of her cloak's sleeve, trying to bring her back to down to sit with them. But Hermione shook her head and stood up hastily. Ginny frowned and rested her hands in the crook of her lap, "It's not as if we're trying to push you into a direction you don't want to go in."

"Yes, well it seems like you are."

Ginny shook her head, "Not even close, Hermione."

"We're your friends." Harry then said- his right left arm wrapped around the back of Ginny's chair while his hand casually ran across her shoulder. Hermione shook her head and looked away, staring at a stain on the wooden table she had been fiddling with earlier ago.

"And as friends, I'd ask for you to respect my wishes and leave Draco out of our conversations while out at a late night pub."

There was silence and she was feeling a bit too awkward to stand in it. Making a move to leave and muttering a "goodnight", she turned to go but stopped in her footsteps a little at the sound of Ronald's voice.

"You're a hypocrite, you know that?"

Turning around sharply, she gaped at his choice of words- the icy tone in his voice leaving behind the Ronald Weasley she adored. His congenial smile disappeared in the dim light of the room and his blue eyes now seemed to be a darker shade of a turbulent night sky.

Shaking her head and feeling the locks of brown hair wave around her, she looked at Harry and Ginny to study their reactions. Harry seemed to be slightly shocked, judging by the way his brows shot up and how he was staring at Ronald. Ginny, however, was sitting in her seat with a blank look on her pale, freckled face- arms crossed against her chest. Before Hermione spoke, she was sure she saw a small quirk on the girl's lips.

She stared back at Ronald and marched over to the table with what felt like heat streaming off her skin. All over she felt hot and if seeing red was an expression that most Muggles used when in this current state of distress, she was sure she was seeing some of it too. "You're impossible, Ronald. A _hypocrite_?" She shouted over the noise that now proceeded to grow louder in the bar, music from the stage above thundering through the rest of the room.

Her red-headed best friend stared up at her with equal ardor. Over the years, the fights with him had gotten more vehement in nature- only because Ronald started to stand up for himself. They weren't dating anymore and he usually saw no reason to appease her while she ranted on about how she saw his side of the argument invalid under all circumstances of the situation- be it anything, really.

It shouldn't have shocked her to see him stare at her like this. To see him voice his opinion so openly about the matter of her feelings for Draco. And in a way, Hermione could have admired that. But it made him so thick sometimes. So thick.

"Yeah." He stood up as well and she almost had the sense to cower back from his overbearing height. However, she stood her ground and only lifted her pale chin up at him so more- never taking her brown eyes off of him. "That's what I think."

She exhaled loudly and rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hip, "Pray tell, how so then? How am I the hypocrite in this?"

Crossing his arms against his chest as well, he stared down at her some more, quietly studying Hermione it seemed before speaking. "When you and the ferret were dating, what was it you told me? Do you remember?"

Racking through her brain, she bit her lip and tried to remember exactly what he was referring to. Merlin only knew, she thought. She had told Ron so many things...

"'Get over it, Ronald. I'm with him. He's a decent bloke...blah, blah, blah...'" He said in a mocking tone that surprisingly sounded a lot like hers, but she didn't admit it.

"You needed to get over it!" She paused and pursed up her lips, "And I don't sound like that."

He rolled his eyes then and sighed, "Oh, who bloody cares if I got the pitch of your voice right or not! The fact of the matter...well- it's easy to see then, isn't it? You told me to 'get over it'. Didn't you?"

"Because you were being irrational at the time-"

"Exactly. Don't you ever stop to think that you're being just as irrational? Things with you and Malfoy are over, but all you seem to do is wallow in some pity party for yourself."

"I don't wallo-"

"You're so deep into your emotions for this idiot that you don't even realise how far gone you are." She bit her lip at that last bit and refused to say anything at this point in the conversation. Looking down then at Harry and Ginny, she saw that their focus was on themselves- trying to block out the argument Ronald and her were having. But she knew they were listening...well, she knew Ginny was..."You need to get over him. And...the only way I knew how to get over you and that bloke when the two of you were dating was by meeting new people- dating other people."

"I just don't-"

"Don't have the time, eh? While the two of you were dating I had been in my first year of Auror training. The toughest time for an Auror if I might add-"

"It wasn't that horrible, Ron...just because you couldn't block the curses that Connors was sending your way doesn't mean-"

Ron turned to Harry who now had a slight grin on his face at the look on his friend's face. "Shut it, Harry. Besides the point." He turned back to Hermione and as he looked her over, she noticed that the usual warmth in his eyes had come back- causing her to relax the tension in her shoulders and arms. _So guarded and defensive, you are_, she thought to herself.

"I was a preoccupied bloke who tried his hardest to forget about you at the time. And in that difficult process I found someone. Things got better."

Sighing, she dropped her shoulders and stared down at the floor, eying her shoes. "Ronald..." Shaking her head. "It's not that easy."

"It's not supposed to be. But that shouldn't stop you from growing a pair of bollocks to move on."

She shot her head up to stare at him one more time and the anger that was starting to fade in his eyes returned, hurting her more than she thought it would.

Getting lectured by Ronald wasn't doing much good for her right now and she knew that at this point in time, standing in this pub with her best mate height intimidating everything she held as firm fact against her- it…really just wasn't doing much for her. Only because she knew- for once- that Ronald Weasley was right.

Shaking her head and stepping back, she looked over at Harry and Ginny one more time- seeing worry in their eyes before murmuring, "I-I...need to..." She blinked rapidly and turned around to finally leave her friends and the pub behind.

Later on, while she would sleep in her bed- sheets up to her chin as she stared at her blank, moonlit ceiling she could say that she left the pub under dire circumstances consisting of a splinter or other formidable object obstructing her eyes, causing her to tear up from the irritation...

But in the end, she knew the tears were nothing but waters of truth revealing the world to her once again.

**000000000000000**

"Pass the sheet on your left over to me, will you?" She stated as more of a demand, than a question. Her head was bent over another parchment, writing up the names and dates that she was able to recover from the Headquarters just a few nights before.

She was sure that there was something more suspicious about this rouge group beyond the fact that these members were listed as numbers and not people. Something beyond the fact that they were treated more like machinery and tools, than people fighting against a cause...

"A please would gladly suffice, Granger." The sneer in his voice was clear as day, but she didn't budge from her spot over the parchment. Her concentration was dire to thinking this through. But without that sheet of paper near him, she would have to get up, walk around the desk and retrieve it- knowing full well that all of that would trump the logical stream of ideas running through her head at the moment.

She really had no time for his anger or games and after the two days of ignoring both Ginny and Harry at her office, she was ready for a nap at home. Quite ready, indeed.

She huffed a "please" and continued writing as the sheet of paper with the list of tasks skittered across the table and landed on top of the parchment she was writing on-blocking the words she wrote and thus making her lose her train of thought. Completely.

She wanted to scream. Although she knew if she continued on writing she'd get the ideas back in her head, but the fact of the matter was that he was here. Being a prick. And his presence...it wasn't helping. Not one bit.

And having to fight with every string in her body to not look at him was proving more difficult than on usual days. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he smelt very much like peppermint tonight...

He noticed her irate disposition it seemed, because she could feel the smirk from his face all the way over on her side of the table. Piercing through her heated pores, washing over her, running through her bloodstream.

"Alright there, Granger?"

"Fine." She bit out. Looking down at the list he handed her.

They had done good on the last mission. She was able to grab the list of tasks that members (or numbers) had to perform and look them over, quietly. But a certain name on this list scared her slightly and she looked up at Draco as he fiddled with the ends of his collar, lips pursed as he stared down at.

Biting her lips, she stared back at the paper to make sure she hadn't read it incorrectly. But looking at the name and task assigned to #8475 she knew hadn't.

Staggering out a breath and noticing that the edges of her eyes were starting to blur up, his voice brought her out of her slight stump.

"Granger."

"What?" She whispered now. Looking at the anything but him.

"Are you bloody deaf?"

Irritated, confused, and a bit shell-shocked, she mustered up the courage to look at him and tried her hardest to hide the fact that her eyes were now watering and an excuse to reason out the tears that were fighting to come out was nowhere to be found in her shattered mind at the moment.

"What is it, Malfoy?"

He looked her over and stared at the sheet of paper he had given to her in her hand, clutched tight. "What's the matter with you?"

Letting out a loose gasp, she stuttered around her breathing and words, looking from the paper to Draco and then back. "Have you read this yet?"

He rolled his eyes and snatched it from her quivering hand, studying her before looking at the paper with a stern expression. "Of course not. You barked at me like a banshee to give it to you before I had the chance." He smirked over at her, before going to read over the list. "Which brings me to the question why you never-"

A pause.

The silence.

The fire crackling against the dark pausing silence.

"It's to happen tomorrow afternoon." She whispered so quietly that she thought she had said that more in her head than out loud.

More silence.

She bit her lip and ran her quill against the parchment in front of her. Lips trembling as she spoke once more, "Draco." He stared up at her, eyes burning. "We need to surveillance..."

"You will not be surveying anything, Granger." She frowned at this, but he continued. "In fact," he said as he placed the sheet down on the table, "I suggest you don't come to work at all tomorrow."

Gaping at him, she got up and reached over the table with a bit of a stretch before grabbing the sheet, looking at #8475 once more. "Like hell I will."

"The dire circumstance in this-"

"I need to be there!"

"The fact that this attack-"

"-garnered towards the victim-"

"-gives all the right reasons for you to not be there at all. Don't argue-"

"-needs the victim there in order for the attack to even occur, Malfoy!"

His pursed lips and red face looked almost comical, but his eyes...nothing about the storm in them was funny at all. Nothing. "You're insane."

"And you're an arse. I'm glad we got the obvious out of the way."

"So you admit to your insanity."

"If by an insane, you mean mad. And if by mad, you mean 'genius', then yes. I do."

Silence.

She sighed and sat back in her seat, "I need to be there so that the attacker knows I didn't miss work. In order for the attack to take place, the victim needs to be there. It wouldn't make sense to not have the victim at work, only to place a muggle bomb in their desk at the time they're supposed to be there. My leave of absence would only put the attacker further away."

He was shaking his head at this point and the blond strands that were so perfectly held together cam falling to the fronts of his eyes. "You won't be bait, Granger. If anything this ruins it even more."

"How so?"

"What if you do get hurt?"

"I won't-"

"The attacker can see you and decide to strike you some other way besides this professed 'bomb'. And this would ruin the whole plan to surveillance your desk-"

She shook her head and tapped the paper, "He won't."

"You don't know this-"

"Draco. In every completed task that we've looked at the members always, and I mean always, complete the task by exactly how it's performed. All the time." He looked at her with a fixated gaze and then down at the paper that was now under her palm. She knew she had gotten his attention a bit, which gave her time to pour in some of her thoughts about this. "That's the strange thing. Listen," she shuffled around her and gave him the notes she had been working on prior to their long-winded argument. Pointing at names and tasks from last week, "This here, performed at the exact time, the exact way- successfully. Each of these...follow some sort of pattern. It's almost as if these members are just tools or robots. This is too systematic-"

"The Imperious Curse."

She looked up from her paper at him and noticed the gleam in his eyes that he usually got from understanding a new point of view in a hard-cracked case. Smiling slightly to herself on the inside, she nodded and looked back at the paper. "With the Imperious Curse, of course. It would have to be tracked with their wands..."

"Maybe they were able to not have it tracked, Granger."

She frowned at the possibility, "You're right."

Another bump in the road left them silent once again, but a few minutes later as she perused her notes to herself, his voice broke the mute atmosphere around them. "If we catch the member tomorrow, we'll be able to interrogate him."

"That's a big 'if', Draco..."

"We'll most definitely need to use you as bait then." She looked up at him with shocked eyes, his stare penetrating and hard. He sneered at her, top lip curving up as he looked her over. "Problem?"

She shook her head, "N-no...not at all. Yes, that will be fine, then. Bait." She nodded her head at the last word and looked at her notes once more, momentarily wondering if it was too late to write up her will.

**0000000000000**

**January 2002**

_Dinner with the Malfoys was going to be anything but uninteresting. For the fact of the matter that she didn't have much to wear. Not much that she knew would deem her eligible enough to date their son so as to dispel the fact that her blood wasn't as pure as theirs. So she knew she had to go shopping for a new dress robe._

_Something distinctly Wizarding and expensive._

_The idea of spending such galleons on an outfit she knew she'd never wear again, all for his parents mad her insides clench with irritation._

_She frowned as she looked over the piece of robes at the foot of her bed above the pale blue duvet._

_Footsteps came out of the bathroom in her room and she looked up from the mirror in front of her as she watched Draco knot up his black tie around his pale, muscled neck._

_He was leaning up against the edge of the open doorway, with his leg cross behind the other. He looked so at ease and just...perfect. But as she looked back at herself in the mirror, the red stain adorning her cheeks and the crumpled brown mess that she admittedly called her hair, she now saw the sharp sharp contrast against the perfect man whose footsteps sounded loudly against her wooden floor as he stood behind her._

_"What's the matter, Granger?" He lifted a brown lock and pushed it aside. She felt the dry piece of hair move gingerly across her skin, leaving in its wake a trail of kisses that burned from the coolness of his lips._

_Closing her eyes and laying her head against the front of his clothed shoulders, she made to turn her head to kiss his neck, but was interrupted by his lips on hers. Gasping at the surprise and taste of peppermint on his lips, she kissed him back with furrowed brows, wondering innocently why he tasted so familiar to her._

_Groaning at the taste and feel of his tongue moving against her lips, she opened up for him and lifted her hands around to the back of his neck, pulling him in closely as she gasped and breathed heavily, panting as he moved his lips across hers- exploring her freely._

_His arms quickly wrapped around her shower robes, grabbing her waist and pulling her against him roughly. The feel of his erection behind her made a small giggle erupt from within her. Tthe huffed laugh against her lips from him was soon interrupted by a moan as she rubbed decently against the front of him. The kisses frenzied and fired, she made to lick the inside of his mouth once more, because it really did taste quite good. Peppermint..._

_Opening her clouded eyes, she stared at him before breaking the kiss and whispering heatedly against his lips as she felt him continue to thrash his front against her bum. "Draco..."_

_"Hm." He murmured as he made his way down her slender throat._

_Closing her eyes she gasped out a quick breath and thought back to the question, "You taste...did you brush your teeth?"_

_He stopped his venture down the front of her chest, having her slightly turned against him so that now her left side was against his front. He lifted his head and stared down at her with a slight irritation. "You interrupted me to ask if I brushed my teeth?"_

_Blushing, she looked around her room. "Yes."_

_A laugh above came from the man she adored with all her heart, the way his grey eyes crinkled in the light made her heart stop slightly. "You're impossible."_

_She smacked him and wiggled against him as she tried to get out of his grasp. "I need to go and get ready, Draco." Wiggling against him some more, she yelped out a sharp giggle as he nestled his lips against the back of her ear, biting down at that one particular spot that he just discovered a week ago._

_He was taking good advantage of his discovery, she thought._

_"We can just tell my parents your Floo network was acting up and do a few things here..." The growing erection against her hip was tempting, but as she wiggled against him one last time and managed to escape his grasp at the time of vulnerability, she laughed gingerly and began to walk to her bathroom._

_"I need to brush my teeth now." She reached her door before the thought crossed her mind and made her stop in her tracks. Peppermint. "Draco." She looked over at him once again and saw that he was adjusting the front of his trousers. He looked back at her with hooded eyes and a grunt that sounded his discomfort with being left dry, but she continued on. "Rosemary."_

_He sighed as he fixed himself and she watched as he walked to her bed to sit down and put on his leather shoes. "What of it?"_

_"That's usually how you taste."_

_He smirked up at her as he tugged at the strings, stretching the tongue of his shoe and placing his right foot in it. "Keeping tabs on how I taste, Granger?"_

_She shook her head and listlessly looked at the toothpaste on her bathroom's counter. "It's just...you usually taste like rosemary, because that's the toothpaste you have at your home..."_

_"Mhmm." She watched him as he tugged some more on the strings._

_"Did you change your toothpaste?"_

_He huffed out another laugh and went for the second shoe, "I don't know why you're pushing this, Granger?"_

_Crossing her arms against her clothed chest, she raised a brow. "Just answer the question."_

_He sighed and placed his foot on the floor with a loud thud, "No. I did not change my toothpaste."_

_Looking at her toothpaste once more she asked, "Did you use mine?"_

_He raised his brow then and smirked, "Why, ever the perceptive witch, you are."_

_"Did you bring your toothbrush with you?" If he was bringing his toothbrush to her flat- she only knew what that meant._

_He was taking this relationship to another level, wasn't he? She was excited about it, of course. The significance of a toothbrush being shared in one bathroom by both parties of the opposite sex who happened to be dating- well, that really did show much commitment. It showed that he was willing to stay in the relationship. Bring his things over to her place. And really just...wanting to be a part of her life._

_She breathed heavily as she waited for his response. He looked evenly at her before answering, "Of course I didn't."_

_Kind of shot down by the dismissal, she frowned but then asked wearingly. "Draco..."_

_"Hm."_

_"How did you brush your teeth then?"_

_Silence._

_She gaped at him and watched as his smirk grew even more. "You prick!"_

_He smiled then and stood up from the foot of the bed to walk over to her as she stood against the door of the bathroom. "Prick?"_

_She pointed her finger at his chest and poked him, "You aren't supposed to be using other people's toothbrush! It's...it's..."_

_He laughed merrily and grabbed her finger that had been poking him, kissing it against his rosy lips as he winked down at her. "I've shared saliva with you, Granger. Sharing toothbrushes shouldn't be that big of a deal."_

_"It's uncharacteristically disturbing, Draco."_

_He shook his head and bent down to kiss her lips once more, tasting the peppermint again. This time the familiar taste made her shake her head with disbelief. She couldn't help but smile at his audacity. It really was unsanitary. Something her dentist parents ingrained in her. She couldn't not find anything wrong with it._

_"Loosen up, Granger..." He murmured against her lips._

_She smiled as she felt him push against her once more, his erection more prominent than when they were in front of the mirror._

_She moaned into his lips and kissed him back quickly before pulling away and walking backwards into the bathroom, shutting the door in his flushed, shocked face._

_With the door closed and charmed to not let him in, she stared at her toothbrushes bristles- all wet and used now. Shaking her head, she walked to the sink and heard him beat his hands against the door. "You bloody vixen. You can't just leave me out here with this...this..."_

_She giggled and picked up her toothbrush, looking at it closely now._

_Even though he did not bring his toothbrush to her humble abode, the fact that he had felt comfortable enough to use her things, well...that was something she could slightly accept. Just a little, really._

* * *

><p>Eeeps. Hoped you liked it. Love you. And there will be more to come ;)<p> 


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